LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 



flmp Itainghf ^ 



f UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




4 



HISTORY AND SIGNIFICANCE 



OF THE 

SACRED TABERNACLE 

OF THE 

HEBREWS. 



BY 

EDWARD E. ATWATER. 




NEW YORK: 
DODD AND MEAD, PUBLISHERS, 
762 Broadway. 
1875. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by 

EDWARD E. ATWATER, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



Control 



Number 




tmp96 



031566 



THIS VOLUME 

IS DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR 

TO 

HIS BELOVED AND VENERATED FATHER; 

WHO, HAVING LONG ENJOYED COMMUNION WITH GOD BY FAITH, 
IS WAITING, IN THE EIGHTY-NINTH YEAR OF HIS AGE, 
FOR ADMISSION WITHIN THE INNER SANCTUARY, 
WHERE WE SHALL SEE AS WE ARE SEEN, 
AND KNOW AS WE ARE KNOWN. 



PREFACE. 



An instructor called my attention to the Hebrew sanctuaries 
before I had completed the first year of theological study, and 
thereby determined my specialty. After thirty years of work in the 
ministry, I retired from the pulpit to give myself wholly to a sub- 
ject which a pastor can study only at intervals, and for the purpose 
of imparting rudimentary instruction. The preparation of this 
volume has, been accompanied with delight by reason of .new dis- 
coveries amid the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden in 
the symbols of the tabernacle. Thanking God that my life and 
health have been spared to complete the work, I send it forth in 
the hope that my readers may in some degree share with me in my 
joy. 

Of the older writers on the tabernacle, Lund has rendered me 
much service by the thoroughness of his work. A person ac- 
quainted with his book on the Hebrew sanctuaries can easily 
believe that it was, as he says in the preface, the result of thirteen 
years of application. The specimen of his interpretation of the 
tabernacle, given in the second part of this volume, ought not to 
diminish our respect for the judgment and scholarship evinced in 
his historical investigations ; for in his day no other interpretation 
of Hebrew symbolism had been suggested than that of the wild, 
lawless typologists of the Cocceian school. 



vi 



PRE FA CE. 



Bahr was the first interpreter who attempted to apply to the 
subject the inductive method of investigation. From him more aid 
has been derived in writing the second part of the book than from 
all other sources ; but my readers who are familiar with his Sym- 
bolik will discover many deviations from the path he blazed through 
the previously pathless wilderness. As might be expected, the first 
explorer made some mistakes which his followers easily avoid. 
This would doubtless have been the case if Bahr had been per- 
fectly impartial in his interpretation ; but unfortunately he com- 
menced his work with a conviction that the commonly received 
view of the purpose of Christ's death is erroneous, — a conviction 
so strong that he had already given to the world a polemical book 
on the atonement. His prejudices led him astray, and compelled 
those who came after him to undertake new and independent ex- 
plorations. The first volume of a revised edition of his Symbolik 
has been issued since the following pages were written, but I have 
not yet seen it. 

Of writers later than Bahr to whom I am indebted, Kurtz de- 
serves to be here mentioned : for, in cases where he has expressed 
his opinion, I have not often found cause for dissenting ; and, in the 
numerous instances in which my judgment has coincided with his, I 
have not deemed it necessary to make specific acknowledgment 
except when his language is adopted. 

The work which Bahr began can be completed only by a suc- 
cession of laborers, each of whom will doubtless make some mis- 
takes. Those who have preceded me have done so ; and I cannot 
expect that my interpretation will in all cases be satisfactory to 
later explorers. Confident that my studies have added to the 
knowledge of Hebrew symbolism, both in breadth and accuracy, I 
hope they may assist those who come after me to make additional 
discoveries. 

The illustrations have been gathered from different sources ; but 



PRE FA CE. 



Vll 



those which exhibit the utensils of worship are generally taken 
from Neumann, who has studied the subject in the light of Assyri- 
ology. His conjectural figure of a Hebrew cherub has been given 
merely as a conjecture where conception can only approximate to 
the reality. 

The book is intended especially for clergymen ; but I have endeav- 
ored to write so that persons acquainted only with their vernacular 
English may find advantage and pleasure in its perusal. Perhaps 
I might have made myself more acceptable to Hebrew scholars by 
introducing more Hebrew words into the text ; but I hope that some 
of the many laymen who are interested in biblical studies will 
appreciate my determination to use English words in the text in all 
cases where they would serve my purpose. 
New Haven, October, 1874. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTION 1 

BOOK I. HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 
CHAPTER I. 

The Edifice of the Tabernacle 9 

CHAPTER II. 

Its Furniture 31 

CHAPTER III. 

Its Erection • • 45 

CHAPTER IV. 

Its, Attendants 55 

CHAPTER V. 

66 

Its Sacrifices 

CHAPTER VI. 

Its Lustrations ?4 

CHAPTER VII. 

84 

Its Calendar 

ix 



X 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

PAGE 

Its Migrations • • • .100 

CHAPTER IX. 

Its Expenses • • II 3 

BOOK II: SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 
CHAPTER I. 

Evidence that it was Significant . . . . . .129 

CHAPTER II. 

It symbolized the Truths of the Mosaic Revelation . 140 
CHAPTER III. 

It typified the Truths of Christianity 155 

CHAPTER IV. 

Means of Interpretation .167 

CHAPTER V. 

Symbolism of Number and Form . . . . . . 182 

CHAPTER VI. 

Symbolism of Color . 209 

CHAPTER VII. 
Symbolism of Minerals . 225 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Symbolism of Vegetable Substances . . . ( . -233 

CHAPTER IX. 

Symbolism of Animals and Composite Animal Forms . . 248 



CONTENTS. xi 
CHAPTER X. 

PAGE 

Interpretation of the Edifice z6 4 

CHAPTER XI. 

Interpretation of the Furniture 28 9 

CHAPTER XII. 

Interpretation of the Priesthood 3*7 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Interpretation of the Sacrifices 34 2 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Interpretation of the Lustrations 3 61 

CHAPTER XV. 

Interpretation of the Calendar . . . • • • 37 1 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Prophetic Symbols, or Types '399 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Extent to which the Hebrews comprehended the Signifi- 
cance of the Tabernacle . . . . • • • • 4 2 7 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
Study of the Tabernacle important to Christians . . 435 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Fig. 

x. Front Elevation ..... , Faces title-page. 

Faces Page 

2. One of the Planks of the Frame . *5 

jjl One of the Corner Planks I 5 

4. End of a Corner Plank ' •> 

5. Side of a Socket 15 

6. Top of Two Corner Sockets *5 

7 " The Two Equal Parts of "The Tabernacle," or Inner- 

„ . . 20 

most Curtain 

8. The Two Parts of the Second Curtain 2 7 

9. Ark of the Covenant according to Neumann • 3 2 
10' Ark of the Covenant with its Crown placed midway from 

Top to Bottom 3 2 

11. table of Show-Bread from the Arch of Titus ... 38 



12. 



Table of Show-Bread according to Neumann ... 38 

13, 14, 15. Assyrian Tables and Stool ...... 39 

16. Chandelier from the Arch of Titus 4° 

• 4 1 

17. Chandelier 

T . 4 2 

18. Altar of Incense 

19. Altar of Burnt-Offering 43 

20. Ground-Plan of the One Hundred Silver Sills ... 45 

21. The Frame of Acacia-Wood 46 

22' "The Tabernacle" of Tapestry fastened upon the Frame, 47 

23. The Covering of Goat's Hair laid over << The Tabernacde," 48 

24 Ground-Plan of the Edifice, including the Court . . 49 

. ^4 

2=;. Plan of the Encampment 



x iv ILL US TRA TIONS. 

Faces 'Page 

26. Eagle-headed Human Figure 257 

27. Eagle-headed Lion . 258 

28. Winged Human-headed Lion . . 259 

29. Andro-Sphinx 260 

30. Cherub according to Neumann ' . 261 

31. Subordinate Priest in Costume ....... 325 

32. Sacerdotal Tunic 328 

33. Loom for weaving Seamless Tunics . . . . . . 329 

34. Tunic without Seam, woven in the Sixteenth Century . 330 

35. Assyrian King 331 

36. hlndostanee turbans, indicating the rank of the wearers, 332 

37. Robe of the Ephod 333 

38. High-Priest in Robe of the Ephod .334 

39. Ephod ............. 335 

40. Breastplate 336 

41. Ephod with Breastplate attached ...... 337 

42. Turban of a Subordinate Priest ...... 338 

43. Turban of the High-Priest .338 

44. Golden Crown 338 

45. Head of an Assyrian King with a Crown on the Forehead, 338 

46. High-Priest in his Ordinary Costume ..... 339 



47. High-Priest in Costume of the Day of Atonement . . 340 



INTRODUCTION. 



If the art of photography had been known to the skil- 
ful artisans who constructed the Sacred Tabernacle of 
the Hebrews, they would, doubtless, have endeavored 
to transmit to the generations to come a view of the 
edifice as it stood after its first erection in the midst of 
the vast encampment by which it was surrounded. In 
the absence of a contemporary picture, we are able, by 
means of the detailed description in the books of Moses, 
to reproduce in imagination the scene which was spread 
out at the base of Sinai on the first anniversary of the 
exodus from Egypt. 

The tents of two millions of people are pitched in 
four divisions around a hollow square ; each division 
containing three of the twelve tribes of Israel, and there- 
fore subdivided into three smaller encampments, sepa- 
rated by spaces broader than the numerous streets, 
which, crossing each other at right angles, divide tent 
from tent within the bounds of a tribe. Here this mul- 
titude of people have continued without change of place, — 
here their tents have remained pitched for three-fourths 
of a year. Yesterday the tabernacle was erected. It 
stands facing the east, in the centre of the hollow square ; 
and in the ample court surrounding it are to be seen the 
brazen laver for the ablutions of the priests, and the great 



2 INTRO D UC TION. 

altar of burnt-offering on which the fire is to be perpet- 
ually preserved. Immediately around this court are the 
tents of the tribe of Levi, the tribe set apart to the ser- 
vice of the tabernacle, and no longer numbered as one 
of the twelve ; Ephraim and Manasseh being counted as 
two tribes to perpetuate the original and symbolic num- 
ber, twelve. 

So vast a multitude of people has seldom been gath- 
ered in one encampment of tents. It is a grand specta- 
cle, probably not inferior in grandeur to that which 
afterward met the eye of Balaam, when, gazing from the 
summit of Peor, he exclaimed, " How goodly are thy 
tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel ! As the 
valleys are they spread forth, as gardens by the river's 
side, as the trees of lign-aloes which the Lord hath 
planted, and as cedar trees beside the waters." 1 

Of this goodly picture, the tabernacle is the central 
feature. The habitations of the people are disposed 
around it ; their eyes turn toward it in the morning and 
at evening ; and their prayers ascend with the smoke of 
sacrifice which goes up from its altar. Not only in the 
morning and at evening, but at all hours of the day and 
night, it is the cynosure to many who stand observant 
of that visible manifestation of Jehovah, which rests 
over it as a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by 
night. 

WHAT, THEN, IS THIS EDIFICE? WHENCE CAME IT? 
FOR WHAT PURPOSE WAS IT ERECTED? 

Fifty days after the exodus from Egypt, Moses re- 
ceived on Sinai the two tables of stone, on which God 

1 Num. xxiv. 2-6. 



INTRODUCTION. 



3 



had inscribed the Ten Commandments. At the same 
time he received instructions to build a tabernacle, with 
minute specifications of the form, measure, and materials 
of its several parts. After forty days spent on the 
mountain, much of the time occupied in receiving from 
God instructions in regard to the edifice itself, its appur- 
tenances, its attendants, its services, and the import of 
the whole, he returned to the camp to communicate to 
the people the divine commands. 

With alacrity they responded to the proposal that 
they should contribute such materials as they might have 
in possession, suitable for use in constructing the sacred 
edifice. More than an ample supply of timber, of 
leather, of cloth, of metals, and of jewels, was soon 
brought to the persons appointed to receive it ; men and 
women, rich and poor, uniting in a common enthusiasm 
which sometimes required the sacrifice of personal orna- 
ments, and the relinquishment of the means of domestic 
embellishment. 

A corps of artisans skilful in various kinds of work 
was then selected, and placed under the superintendence 
of Bezaleel, of the tribe of Judah, with Aholiab, of the 
tribe of Dan, next to him in authority. There were 
among them carpenters and carvers, goldsmiths, silver- 
smiths, and coppersmiths, moulders and founders, spin- 
ners, weavers, and embroiderers. Eminent in skill by 
natural aptitude and much practice in Egypt, they were 
assisted in their work by the Spirit of God imparted for 
this special service. 

These workmen were occupied about nine months with 
the task assigned. All things being then ready, the 
specified space was enclosed, the altar and laver were 



4 



INTR OD UC TION. 



put in place, the tabernacle itself was erected, and the 
furniture of its two apartments was carried within. It was 
the fourteenth day of the first month of the year, when 
the Israelites fled from Egypt : it was the first day of the 
first month in the subsequent year, when the tabernacle 
was erected. 

Immediately the people who had so willingly under- 
taken to build a sanctuary for Jehovah, in which he 
might dwell among them, had evidence that their work 
and offerings were acceptable to him ; for, on the day 
when the tabernacle was erected, the shechinah, through 
which he manifested his friendly presence, rising from 
the tent temporarily used as a sanctuary, 1 removed, and 
rested on the new and beautiful edifice which had been 
so long in process of construction. There it remained 
as a column of cloud by day, and of fire by night, as 
long as He who was represented by it desired the en- 
campment to continue ; and, by express appointment, the 
rising of the shechinah from the tabernacle was hence- 
forth, during the long journey through the wilderness, 
the signal for removing to another station. " So it was 
always : the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance 
of fire by night ; and when the cloud was taken up from 
the tabernacle, then after that the children of Israel 
journeyed ; and in the place where the cloud abode, 

i It is evident from the Book of Exodus, that, before the erection of the Sina- 
itic tabernacle, a tent had been used as an appointed place of meeting between 
Jehovah and the people. There is, however, no record of its erection, or, if an 
ordinary tent was set apart for the purpose, of its consecration, unless the mention 
of it in connection with the sin of the golden calf is to be so understood. That 
narrative seems to read more naturally if one conceives of the temporary sanctuary 
as previously set apart to that use, and now removed out of the camp to testify 
Jehovah's displeasure with the Israelites on account of their idolatry. 



INTR OD UC TIO AT. 



5 



there the children of Israel pitched their tents. At the 
commandment of the Lord the children of Israel jour- 
neyed, and at the commandment of the Lord they 
pitched : as long as the cloud abode upon the tabernacle 
they rested in their tents." 1 

The sanctuary, being thus completed and set up, is 
now to be dedicated with a series of ceremonies pro- 
tracted through twelve days ; each of the tribes occupy- 
ing one day in the presentation of gifts and the offering 
of sacrifices. Of this edifice the following pages are to 
treat. 

l Num. ix. 16-18. 



PART I. 

HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 



HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE EDIFICE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

Moses received on Sinai not only a command to make 
the tabernacle, but plans and specifications according 
to which the work was to be executed. A pattern, or 
model, was shown him, to which he was required to con- 
form not only in general, but in all particulars. This 
pattern, so far as we can judge from the distinctive 
meaning of the word, was something more than a repre- 
sentation on a perspective plane.. Perhaps he was made 
to see an exact exemplar of the edifice he was to con- 
struct. Besides this pattern which was shown him, he 
received very minute descriptions of the several parts 
of the building, with directions as to the materials of 
which they were to be made, their forms, and their 
measures. With the aid of these descriptions, which 
have been transmitted to us, we are able to reproduce 
the structure almost exactly as it stood. 

Its ground-plan was a parallelogram forty-five feet in 

9 



io HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 

length, and fifteen feet in width. 1 The parts required 
by the specifications having been severally fabricated, 
and made ready to be put together, the next thing to be 
done would be to set up around three sides of this par- 
allelogram a wooden frame, or wall, such as we now 
proceed to describe. 

The material was of shittim, a species of acacia, the 
timber of which has a rich black color, like ebony, and 
is eminently light, solid, strong, and smooth. This spe- ^ 
cies of acacia is still found in the regions traversed by 
the Israelites in their passage from Egypt to Canaan. 
Stanley speaks of it as a spreading tree with" gay foliage 
and blue blossoms, which he saw in Egypt and after- 
ward in the desert. 2 Robinson, in his journey from 
Jerusalem to Gaza, passed through a valley called Wady 
es-Sumt, taking its name from the abundance of these 
trees. 3 

The frame of the tabernacle consisted of forty-eight 
pieces of this acacia-wood standing on end. Eight of 
them were at the rear of the edifice, and twenty on each 

1 After some hesitation, the author has decided to use English measures in this 
part of his work, hoping thereby to give the reader a more definite conception than 
by the transfer of the Hebrew names. In so doing, he is obliged to express his 
opinion of the length of the Hebrew cubit. In representing it as equivalent, or 
nearly equivalent, to eighteen English inches, he would not be understood as ignor- 
ing the difficulties which oppose such a conclusion, or the decision of eminent 
scholars against it. There is no reason to doubt that the ammah of the Hebrews 
was, as the name indicates, the measure of a man's arm from the elbow to the 
hand ; but there is some uncertainty whether the measure beginning at the elbow 
was to include the hand to the end of the middle finger, or to stop at the wrist. 
The reader who is particularly curious on this point may consult the article 
"Weights and Measures," in Smith's Bible Dictionary. It will be necessary, in 
that part of the work which relates to symbolism, to recur to the Hebrew measures. 

2 Sinai and Palestine. New York, 1857. Pp. 21, 69. 

3 Biblical Researches in Palestine. Boston, 1841. Vol. ii. p. 349. S&mtisthe 
Arabic name of the acacia. 



THE EDIFICE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



it 



of its sides ; the front being left open to be covered with 
a curtain. They were each fifteen feet long, and, unless 
the two outside pieces on the rear end were exceptions, 
twenty-seven inches wide. It is remarkable that, while 
the width of the other forty-six pieces is specified, we 
have no means of ascertaining with certainty the width 
of these two corner-pieces. This is the more to be 
regretted, as the thickness of the frame is a problem 
which we could easily solve, if we knew the width of the 
edifice measured on the outside. The Scriptures giving 
no information in regard to the thickness, it is not easy 
to decide between contradicting witnesses and opposing 
arguments. It must have been certainly too great to 
justify the use of the word "boards," as descriptive of 
the forty-eight pieces of acacia-wood of which the frame 
of the tabernacle consisted. The Hebrew word comes 
from a root which signifies to cut, and is as applicable to 
planks as to boards. Several inches of thickness would 
be required to give strength and straightness to a frame 
constructed of pieces of wood twenty-seven inches wide. 
The Jewish rabbies say that they were one cubit thick, 
and Lund attempts to confirm their testimony by argu- 
ment. His reasoning, briefly stated, is, that, in the 
absence of information to the contrary, we should believe 
that the corner-pieces were of the same width as the 
others ; in which case, the eight timbers at the end would 
give an outside width to the edifice of eighteen feet; 
and, the inside width being fifteen feet, the walls must 
be each eighteen inches thick in order to give a meas- 
urement of eighteen feet on the outside. It must be 
confessed that such measurements would construct a 
very symmetrical and substantial frame; but when we 



12 



HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 



remember that the tabernacle was a portable edifice, to 
be many times erected and taken down in the removals 
of a nomadic people, it seems incredible that the frame 
should be eighteen inches thick. Even if the acacia far 
exceeded all other species of wood in lightness, such tim- 
bers would be individually too heavy to be easily handled, 
and in the aggregate both too heavy and too bulky for 
transportation. With the exception of a few articles of 
its furniture which were carried by hand, the tabernacle, 
with all its appurtenances, was loaded upon six wagons, 
and drawn by six yoke of oxen. Indeed, all the wood- 
work of the frame, together with the silver sill under- 
neath it, and the sixty pillars on which the curtain 
enclosing the outer court was hung, were carried on four 
wagons, and drawn by four yoke of oxen. So many tim- 
bers, each fifteen feet long, twenty-seven inches wide, 
and eighteen inches thick, to say nothing of the silver 
sill and the pillars around the court, could not possibly 
have been piled on four wagons. 

This difficulty is not sufficiently diminished, if, with 
Lightfoot, we reduce the thickness to nine inches ; but, 
if we suppose it to have been four inches and a half, we 
can ascertain by computation that we have arrived with- 
in the bounds not only of possibility, but of credibility. 
This would make the width of the corner-boards just 
one-half the width of the others; thus answering the 
demands of symmetry nearly and perhaps quite as well, 
and accounting for the separate mention of them in dis- 
tinction from the other six on the west end of the build- 
ing. Such a supposition accords nearly with the state- 
ment of Josephus, that the pillars of which the walls of 
the tabernacle consisted were four fingers thick, and, 



THE EDIFICE OF THE TABERNACLE. 13 



again, that they were the third part of a span in thick- 
ness ; 1 though it is true, as Lund alleges, that his testi- 
mony is of little value, as he is evidently careless in his 
statements, and not always consistent with himself. 
These timbers of the frame are termed pillars both by 
Josephus and the Septuagint translators ; but, to distin- 
guish them easily from the pillars which stood in rows 
across the edifice to support its transverse curtains, or 
veils, we shall designate them hereafter as planks. 

The hypothesis that the planks were four inches and 
a half thick, makes the corner-planks half as wide as the 
others, but offers no suggestion as to their shape. The 
description of the corner-planks is obscure, but favors the 
opinion that each consisted of two pieces fastened to- 
gether at a right angle ; so that it was a corner-plank not 
merely because it stood at the corner, but because it 
formed an angle. The direction, " they shall be twinned," 2 
seems to imply that the two pieces of each corner-plank 
were of equal width. The objection to this shape is, that 
it gives the edifice a length of more than thirty cubits ; 
and the answer to the objection is, that inside measures 
are always to be understood, and that, if the corner- 
planks added nine inches to the length, this addition was 
needed to give ten cubits in the clear to the innermost, 
and twenty cubits in the clear to the outermost apart- 
ment ; nine inches being so much occupied by the two 
rows of pillars which traversed the building, as to be left 
out of account in the measurement of length. 

On the lower end of each of the planks, two tenons 
were wrought, to correspond with mortises in the sills on 
which it was to stand. Possibly there were also tenons 

1 Antiquities, book iii. ch. vi. §3. 2 Exod. xxvi. 24 : marginal reading. 



14 HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 

and mortises on the edges where the planks came to- 
gether; but of this we have no certain knowledge. 
Such a connection of one plank with another, by tenon 
and mortise, would give greater strength to the frame, 
but might not be necessary in addition to the horizontal 
bars which bound the planks together. There were five 
such bars on each side, and five on the rear, made of 
acacia-wood, and overlaid with gold. In regard to the 
arrangement of them, there are different opinions. The 
specifications require ttiat the bar midway from top to 
bottom shall reach from end to end. Keil infers that 
the other four were shorter. He conjectures that they 
were only half as long as the middle bar, and that, the 
rings being arranged to form but three horizontal rows, 
two of these shorter bars filled the rings of the upper 
row, and the other two the rings of the lower row. In 
the absence of definite information, this conjectural 
arrangement of the rings and bars is as free from objec- 
tion as any other, and more so than the old hypothesis 
that a passage was bored, for the middle bar, through the 
planks themselves. The thought of such a passage 
through the planks was suggested by the words, " the 
midst of," in the sentence, " The middle bar in the midst 
of the boards shall reach from end to end." 1 But the 
expression refers to the position of the bar as midway 
from topj to bottom, and not as within the planks. 

Whatever may be the specific gravity of acacia-wood 
as compared with other kinds of timber, planks of such 
size, even if we reduce the thickness to four inches and 
a half, must have been heavy ; and we are therefore dis- 
posed to infer, when we read that they were overlaid 

1 Exod. xxvi. 28. 



THE EDIFICE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



with gold, that the precious metal which covered them 
was not thick. Modern art could make^ a single ounce 
of gold suffice to cover one thousand four hundred and 
sixty-six square feet. Great progress has been made, 
however, in gold-beating within two centuries ; and it is 
probable, from the specimens found in Egypt, that the 
ancient goldsmiths of that country were on a level with 
those of Europe at the beginning of the seventeenth 
century. 1 

These gilded planks of acacia-wood, when erected, 
stood on a base, or sill, of silver, which extended perhaps 
a little way both outward and inward, from the wall 
formed by the planks, and was divided into twice as 
many pieces as there were planks ; so that each of the 
latter stood on two separate pieces of the base, one of 
its two tenons being inserted into a corresponding cavity 
in each division of the base. 

Besides the planks which formed the wall of the tab- 
ernacle, there were four pillars, so called with greater 
strictness of propriety, to support a curtain across the 
interior of the building, dividing it into two apartments ; 
and five pillars to support another curtain over the 
entrance at the east end of the edifice. The four 
pillars for the partition-curtain stood on sills, or socket- 
pieces of silver, and the five for the entrance-curtain on 
sills of copper. 2 It is worthy of notice, that, while 
almost every thing used in the construction of the tab- 

1 Wilkinson : Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians. London, 
1841. Vol. iii. p. 235. 

2 There is reason to believe that the Hebrews were unacquainted with the com- 
position of copper and zinc, now known by the name of brass. Copper may have 
been sometimes alloyed with tin ; but the word rendered in our version "brass" 
signifies, of itself, coffer. See the article << Brass " in Smith's Bible Dictionary. 



1 6 HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 

ernacle is specified as given by voluntary contribution, 
the silver sills, numbering just one hundred, were made 
from the avails of a poll-tax of a half shekel levied upon 
all males from twenty years old upward ; so that, there 
being a talent of silver in each sill, it required the poll- 
tax of three thousand men to make it. But of this we 
shall have occasion to speak again in another chapter. 

The wooden frame of the tabernacle, as above de- 
scribed, having been prepared, it was necessary to cover 
it with suitable hangings, or curtains. Of these there 
were four layers ; the innermost so far excelling the 
others in importance, that it was sometimes denominated 
the tabernacle, as if all else appertaining to the 
edifice were subsidiary to this. It is more natural for 
us, who dwell in houses which are not portable, to think 
of the wall of acacia-wood as the most essential part of 
the edifice; but an attentive study of the directions 
given to Moses, and of the report he makes of the work 
as it proceeded, leads to the conclusion that the frame 
was chiefly designed to give support to the beautiful 
drapery with which it was covered. 

In the conception of a Hebrew travelling through the 
wilderness from Sinai to Canaan, the tabernacle where 
Jehovah dwelt was of cloth, as was his own habitation. 
It was, indeed, of a more beautiful fabric than the other 
tents of the encampment, which were doubtless of goat's 
hair, like those of the nomadic inhabitants of the same 
region at the present day, while the tabernacle of God 
was of fine linen variegated with brilliant colors. 

The cloth here spoken of as linen was the most beau- 
tiful and costly product of the loom known among the 
ancients. Luther renders the word as equivalent to silk ; 



THE EDIFICE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



17 



and our English translators, perhaps misled by him, have 
admitted the word "silk" into the margin of the passage 
which relates how Pharaoh honored Joseph with the 
apparel and other appurtenances of royalty. 1 If the 
Septuagint is right in applying the Greek word bassos to 
this cloth, it was the same as that which is spoken of as 
fine linen in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, 2 
and also in some of the last chapters of the New Testa- 
ment. 3 There is reason to believe that this shesh, as the 
Hebrews called it, excelled other fabrics, not only in the 
fineness of its fibre, but in the purity of whiteness 
to which it might be bleached ; for the name is derived 
from a word which signifies white ; and, in the account 
we have of John's vision of the marriage of the Lamb, 
it is said that to his wife was granted that she should be 
arrayed in this fine linen, clean and white. 4 Not only was 
the fibre of this vegetable naturally small, but care was 
taken in spinning it to produce a small and at the same 
time a strong thread; it having been specified in the 
directions that the curtains should be made of shesh that 
was fine-twisted. 5 

The spinning of this fine white thread, of which the 

1 Gen. xli. 42. 

2 Luke xvi. 19. 

3 The writer of the Apocalypse employs the cognate word (3v(7atvoc instead 
of fivoGog. In the Textus Receptus, however, ftvocot; occurs once (Rev. xviii. 12). 

4 Rev. xix. 8. 

5 The skill to which the Egyptians had attained in the manufacture of this 
cloth may be better appreciated after reading the description by Wilkinson of some 
specimens of it. We copy a portion of what he says of one piece found near 
Memphis : ' ' Some idea may be given of its texture, from the number of threads 
in the inch, which is 540 (or 270 double threads) in the warp; and the limited 
proportion of no in the woof shows the justness of Mr. Thomson's observation 
that this disparity belonged to their system of manufacture, since it is observable 
even in the finest quality of cloth." 



T 8 history of the tabernacle. 



curtains were to be made, was intrusted, as was also the 
spinning of colored thread to be inwoven with the white, 
to the most intelligent women to be found in all the 
tribes ; or, as the English version has it, to " the women 
that were wise-hearted." The thread thus spun was 
woven into webs of cloth six feet wide, and forty-two feet 
long. Of these webs there were ten, each being of the 
length appointed for a curtain ; and into each piece were 
woven figures of cherubs in threads of blue, purple, and 
crimson. 1 Of the significance of the figures thus woven 
into the white curtains of the tabernacle, this is not the 
time to speak; but the figures themselves we would 
gladly describe, were there any certain knowledge to be 
obtained of their form and size. The direction to make 
cherubs is given as if those who were to execute the 
work were already acquainted with such figures, and 
would understand what was required without further 
specification. But such knowledge has not been trans- 
mitted to us ; and we can find in other parts of Scripture 
only a few hints to aid the eye of imagination in gaining 
a true picture of the figures wrought, in bright and beau- 
tiful colors, into the tapestry visible in the interior of the 
tabernacle. 

There can be no doubt that they were unlike any 
beings having actual existence. They seem to have been 
symbolic in their import, and, as such, to have combined 
in their forms features taken from different parts of the 
animal kingdom. Ezekiel saw in vision, and describes, 
cherubs, which he also calls "living creatures," having 
each four faces, — the face of a man, the face of a lion, the 
face of an ox, and the face of an eagle. His description 

1 For the evidence that a crimson, and not a scarlet red is denoted by the 
word which the English version renders " scarlet," see p. 217. 



4 



THE EDIFICE OF THE TABERNACLE. 19 

is more specific than any other which has come down to 
us ; and yet that which John gives, in the Apocalypse, of 
the " living creatures " seen by him in a vision of heaven, 
is sufficiently so to justify the belief that there was some 
diversity, as well as a general agreement, in the form 
of these symbols. In all of them there seems to have 
been a combination of parts taken from the four animals 
mentioned above, and at the same time a preponderance 
of the human element. Now, the lion being a symbol of 
majesty and strength, the ox of patient obedience and 
service, and the eagle of keenness of vision and celerity 
of motion, it is at least a plausible hypothesis, that all 
cherubic figures, however they might differ in minor 
points, representee 1 man as improved by the addition 
of these qualities, and thus fitted to dwell in the habi- 
tatibn of God. The cherubs which Moses was directed 
to weave into the tapestry of the tabernacle, as well 
as those made of gold to stand on the mercy-seat, were, 
perhaps, in the main, figures of the human form, but 
modified by the addition of parts copied from the lion, 
the ox, and the eagle. If, however, any thing can be 
inferred in regard to the Hebrew cherub from the 
combination of different animals by the Assyrians and 
Egyptians, it may have selected from man only his head, 
from the eagle his wings, from the lion his neck and 
mane, and copied the remainder of its figure from the ox. 

The size of the figures on the tapestry, we have no 
data for determining ; but the two cherubs of solid gold 
which stood on the mercy-seat must have been much less 
than life-size, since the ark was only three feet and nine 
inches in length, and there must have been considerable 
space between the cherubs for the pillar of cloud in 



20 



HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 



which Jehovah manifested his presence. Moreover, if 
the figures had been equal to men in height, it would have 
been impossible for the Levites to carry the ark thus bur- 
dened from station to station when the encampment was 
removed. It is not improbable that the cherubs pictured 
on the hangings were of equal size with the two small 
cherubic images which stood on th t mercy-seat. 

Of these ten curtains, five were fastened together into 
one piece, and the other five into one piece, by sewing 
the selvage of one curtain to the selvage of another, 
making two larger curtains each forty-two feet by thirty 
feet. To one side of each of these larger curtains, fifty 
loops were attached at intervals of about nine inches, so 
that the two might be joined together by studs of gold 
" into one tabernacle." 

There has been much dispute whether the tabernacle 
formed of these ten webs of drapery was suspended 
within, or laid over, the frame of acacia-wood. Recent 
writers have generally followed Bahr to the conclusion 
that it was suspended in the interior. His argument is, 
that this cloth of tapestry was regarded as par excellence 
the tabernacle, or habitation of God, that name being ap- 
plied to it specifically, and that it is therefore improbable 
it would be allowed to hang concealed between the frame 
and the over-curtain ; that this tapestry was exceedingly 
precious by reason both of its material, and of the 
amount of labor and skill bestowed on it, so that it would 
be an incredible waste to hang it where only about one- 
fourth part of it would fulfil the purpose for which such 
ornamentation is designed ; that the figures of cherubs 
wrought into this tapestry were such as covered the in- 
terior walls of the temple in later times ; and, finally, that 



Fig. 7. 

THE TWO EQUAL PARTS OF " THE TABERNACLE? 
INNERMOST CURTAIN. 



THE EDIFICE OF THE TABERNACLE. 21 

there is no satisfactory way in which the drapery could 
be held in place if it hung on the outside, while it might 
easily be suspended from hooks within. He compla- 
cently adds, that any one of these four reasons is suffi- 
cient, but that jointly they put the matter fully beyond 
doubt. 1 

There is great force, however, in the argument with 
which Friederich opposes this view. He claims that it is 
more natural, and more consistent with the specifications 
furnished to Moses, and with his description of the edi- 
fice, to conceive of this innermost curtain as falling down 
on the outside like the curtains above it ; since, if it were 
to cover the inside of the walls, there would have been 
some intimation to that effect, which he cannot see in 
the application to it of the term " tabernacle" since this 
would be justified by the tapestry at the top as truly as 
if it hung down on the sides ; that, however rich and 
beautiful the tapestry might be, it was no more so than 
the gilded pillars of acacia, which it would conceal if sus- 
pended in the interior; that Solomon's Temple was 
inwardly covered with gold, and not with drapery ; that 
Philo and Josephus agree in testifying that the tapestry 
was on the outside ; and that the passage in Exodus 
which directs that " a cubit on the one side, and a cubit 
on the other side of that which remaineth in the length 
of the second curtain, shall hang over the sides of the 
tabernacle on this side and on that side, to cover it," 2 can 
be explained only on the supposition that the first cur- 
tain hung down on the outside of the framework. 3 

1 Symbolik des Mosaischen Cultus. Heidelberg, 1837. Vol. i. p. 63. 

2 Exod. xxvi. 13. 

3 Friederich: Symbolik der Mosaischen Stiftshutte. Leipzig, 1841. P. 13. It 
is pleasant to give credit for so strong an argument to a writer who has been so 
unfortunate in his attempt to interpret the symbolism of the tabernacle. 



22 HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 

The argument of Riggenbach, on the same side of the 
question, is, if possible, still more conclusive. He turns 
the fact that the innermost curtain was called the taber- 
nacle against the very position which Bahr would estab- 
lish by means of it; maintaining that the second curtain 
would not have been called a covering upon the taberna- 
cle unless the tabernacle had been outside of the frame ; 
and that by such an arrangement only would the excess 
in the measure of the second curtain over the first, 
namely, half a web at the rear, and a cubit on each side, 
hang over the tabernacle to cover or protect it. The pas- 
sage appealed to reads, "And the remnant that remaineth 
of the curtains of the tent, the half curtain that re- 
maineth, shall hang over the back side of the tabernacle ; 
and a cubit on the one side, and a cubit on the other side 
of that which remaineth in the length of the curtains of 
the tent, it shall hang over the sides of the tabernacle on 
this side and on that side, to cover it." 1 

Probably the disposition now prevalent to conceive of 
the inner curtain of the tabernacle as hanging down on 
the inside proceeds from respect for Bahr as an author- 
ity, rather than from respect for his argument on this 
point. There is nothing new in the position he takes, 
or in the allegations with which he supports it. Lund 
had discussed the question, weighed the arguments, and 
come to the conclusion that the inner curtain was laid 
over the wooden framework. All the world rested in 
such a belief till Bahr revived an old and abandoned 
suggestion, and gave it the weight of his authority. 

The article "Temple," in Smith's Bible Dictionary, 
presents a plan of the disposition of the curtains of the 



1 Exod. xxvi. 12, 13. 



THE EDIFICE OF THE TABERNACLE. 23 

tabernacle, which has at least the merit of novelty. Fer- 
gusson, the writer of the article, is a professional architect, 
and proposes to reconstruct the sacred edifice according 
to the rules of his art. He says, " Every important di- 
mension was either five cubits, or a multiple of five cubits ; 
and all the arrangements in plan were either squares, or 
double squares : so that there really is no difficulty in 
putting the whole together ; and none would ever have 
occurred, were it not that the dimensions of the sanc- 
tuary, as obtained from the ' boards' that formed its 
walls, appear at first sight to be one thing, while those 
obtained from the dimensions of the curtains which cov- 
ered it appear to give another ; and no one has yet suc- 
ceeded in reconciling these with one another, or with the 
text of Scripture." He mentions the common theory 
according to which the curtains are laid over the walls as 
" a pall is thrown over a coffin," and the difficulties which 
seem to him to accompany it, and proceeds, " The solu- 
tion appears singularly obvious. It is simply, that the 
tent had a ridge, as all tents have had from the days of 
Moses down to the present day ; and we have also very 
little difficulty in predicating that the angle formed by 
the two sides of the roof at the ridge was a right angle, 
not only because it is a reasonable and usual angle for 
such a roof, and one that would most likely be adopted 
in so regular a building, but because its adoption reduces 
to harmony the only abnormal measurement in the whole 
building. As mentioned above, the principal curtains 
were only 28 cubits in length, and consequently not a 
multiple of 5 ; but, if we assume a right angle at the 
ridge, each side of the slope was 14 cubits; and I4 2 + 
14 2 — 392, and 20 2 = 400, two numbers which are practi- 



2 4 



HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 



cally identical in tent-building. The base of the triangle, 
therefore, formed by the roof, was 20 cubits ; or, in other 
words, the roof of the tabernacle extended 5 cubits be- 
yond the walls, not only in front and rear, but on both 
sides." 

He thinks that this space of five cubits was enclosed 
so as to correspond with the chambers around the 
temple of Solomon ; alleging this correspondence as one 
argument, but depending also on the plural form of the 
word "sides" when applied to the rear end of the edifice. 
But this last argument disappears on consulting a He- 
brew lexicon ; the word translated " sides" or, more fre- 
quently, " two sides" meaning primarily thighs, and there- 
fore being in the dual number. Secondarily, it meant 
the hinder parts, the back. This argument failing, that 
of correspondence with the temple is not sufficient to 
command assent in the total silence both of tradition 
and of Scripture respecting such an exterior addition to 
the tabernacle. 

But, dropping this part of his hypothesis as unworthy 
of further consideration, it still remains to examine his 
plan for the arrangement of the curtains over a ridge- 
pole seventy-five feet in length, and twenty-two feet and 
a half higher than the sill. One fatal objection to such 
an arrangement is, that, according to the direction given 
to Moses, the partition-veil was to be hung " under the 
taches," 1 or studs, which united the two divisions of the 
innermost curtain ; but, according to this plan, it would 
hang just half way from front to rear, leaving the two 
apartments of equal size. Until this objection is re- 
moved, we need not spend time to speak of others 

1 Exod. xxvi. 33. 



THE EDIFICE OF THE TABERNACLE. 25 

which might be alleged, as the plan is only a new 
hypothesis proposed as a substitute for one encumbered 
with less serious difficulties. 

The partition-veil, to which we have just had occasion 
to allude, was exactly similar in material and workman- 
ship to the tapestry which, like a ceiling, was to cover 
the two apartments at the top. The four pillars in- 
tended for its support were to be arranged in a line 
across the edifice at the distance of fifteen feet from the 
west end, and thirty feet from the east end ; so that the 
tapestry would display on either side the cherubs woven 
into it in the three bright and beautiful colors which 
have been specified. Nothing is more certain, in regard 
to the tabernacle, than that the two apartments into 
which it was divided by this partition-veil were of une- 
qual size ; the eastern being thirty feet long and fifteen 
wide, and the western an exact cube of fifteen feet in 
dimension. The larger apartment is commonly called 
the holy place, and the smaller the holy of holies. 

The entrance-curtain, though somewhat similar to that 
which hung between the two apartments, was not per- 
fectly so ; as there is no mention of cherubs either in the 
directions for making it, or in the description of it when 
made. It was of similar material, being woven, like all 
the hangings visible within, of the fine white linen 
which the Hebrews called shesh, variegated with blue, 
purple, and crimson. It is described in the English ver- 
sion as wrought with the needle, or embroidered; but 
the word rendered "needle-work" is now believed to 
denote a striped or checked pattern produced by the 
loom. Probably the only difference between this and 
the inner curtain was that the colors appeared on this in 



26 



HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 



stripes or checks, instead of being wrought into figures 
of cherubs, as on the other. 1 It was suspended from 
five pillars, as the other was from four. 

The second covering of the sacred habitation was of 
goat's hair, the material commonly if not universally 
used for tent-cloth among the Arabs of the present day, 
and doubtless employed for the same purpose among the 
Hebrews in their journey from Egypt to Canaan. The 
goat's hair used in the manufacture of this tent-cloth 
retains the black color which it has by nature ; so that 
the tents of the natives are easily distinguished from 
those of European travellers. They make a picturesque 
appearance, justifying the illustration used in the Song 
of Songs : "I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of 
Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar." The domestic taber- 
nacles of the Israelites being of this black cloth of 
goat's hair, the tabernacle of Jehovah was distinguished 
from them by being made of very white and fine linen, 
variegated with bright and beautiful colors. But this 
fabric, unsuitable by its delicacy for exposure to the 
weather, was covered with cloth of goat's hair similar to 
that of which the thousands of tents pitched around it 
were made. Black has, however, seemed to some so 
unsuitable for an edifice in which color had symbolic 
significance, that they maintain that the hair of white 
goats, or at least of some other than the common black 
goats, was used in this particular instance. 

1 The Dp^ and the 3 tJT! were both weavers in colors ; the latter producing in 
his web figures of irregular shape such as the cherubs on the inner curtain and the 
partition-veil. The Dpi probably produced figures of regular shape, like stripes 
and checks. See Gesenius on the two words ; also Keil and Delitzsch's Comm. on 
Pentateuch, vol. ii. pp. 176, 182. 



Fig. 8. 

THE TWO PARTS OF THE SECOND CURTAIN. 



THE EDIFICE OF THE TABERNACLE. 27 

This covering of goat's hair consisted of eleven 
pieces, each forty-five feet long and six feet wide. Like 
the curtains of tapestry underneath, they were sewed 
together on their selvages so as to form two larger 
pieces, which, again, were joined with loops and studs 
into one. But the studs, which in the other case were of 
gold, were in this case of a less precious metal, which in 
the English version is called brass, but was probably 
copper. The two pieces of hair-cloth thus fastened 
together with loops and studs were not of equal dimen- 
sions, as the two divisions of the tapestry under it were ; 
for one consisted of six, and the other of five webs. 
The larger division was to cover the outer apartment ; 
the web in front being folded over so as to be of double 
thickness. Whether this doubled web projected beyond 
the under curtain, it is not possible to determine with 
certainty. On the whole, it seems probable that this 
was the arrangement, a margin of hair-cloth thus pro- 
tecting the tapestry on this border as on the others. 
On the sides the hair-cloth reached down nearly, but not 
quite to the sill ; the deficiency being equal to the thick- 
ness of the frame, whatever that may have been. Being 
three feet, or two cubits, longer than the tapestry, the 
marginal surplus was, of course, just one cubit on each 
side. 

The third and fourth coverings were of leather. The 
third was of sheep-skins, dyed red like the leather we call 
morocco. The account of it is very brief, and nothing is 
said of its dimensions ; but it was doubtless large enough 
to cover entirely the cloth of goat's hair. The fourth was 
probably of skins of the badger or of the seal, which were 
perhaps tanned so as to give a bluish appearance to the 



28 



HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 



edifice; for Josephus says, that, to those who viewed 
these outer curtains at a distance, they seemed not at all 
to differ from the color of the sky. The Septuagint, and 
other ancient versions, understand the Hebrew word 
which our English translators have rendered " badger" as 
denoting a blue color; but Gesenius says that this is 
mere conjecture, having no support in the etymology or 
in the kindred dialects, and that the Talmudists and 
Hebrew interpreters almost unanimously hold that the 
word denotes an animal. To this view he accedes, and 
suggests that the Hebrews perhaps applied this name to 
the badger, the seal, and other like animals, not distin- 
guishing accurately between them. This outer curtain 
was doubtless fastened to the ground by means of cords 
and pins, so as to secure it, and, at the same time, those 
under it, from the violence of the winds. It is not 
unlikely that, in pleasant weather, the two outer coverings 
were sometimes folded, or entirely removed, so as to show 
the cloth of goat's hair, in which the dwelling of Jehovah 
resembled the dwellings of his people ; the coverings of 
leather being extrinsic to the idea of the sanctuary, and 
designed for its greater security at times when such 
protection might be useful. This view corresponds with 
the usage of the writer of Exodus in respect to the terms 
he applies to the four coverings respectively : the two 
outer being coverings in a general sense ; the cloth of 
goat's hair being designated by the name applied to the 
tents of the people ; and the inner drapery of tapestry 
being distinguished by a word signifying dwelling, or 
habitation. 

The several parts of the sanctuary, as above described, 
having been constructed, it still remained to make an 



THE EDIFICE OF THE TABERNACLE. 29 

enclosure for the court in which it was to stand. The 
prescribed dimensions of this area were one hundred and 
fifty feet for the length, and v seventy-five feet for the 
width. It was to be enclosed with hangings of cloth 
made of the fine white linen mentioned above, not inter- 
woven, like the curtains of the tabernacle, with figures 
and colors, but, so far as appears, woven plain. That 
portion of it, however, which covered the entrance-way 
at the east end of the court, was variegated with colors 
of blue, purple, and crimson. 1 The height of these hang- 
ings was seven feet and a half ; and they were suspended 
on pillars by means of silver hooks, the pillars standing 
on sills of copper. In the absence of positive knowledge, 
it is reasonable to believe that the pillars were of acacia- 
wood, and not larger than was needful for the service 
they were to render. The English version in one place 2 
conveys the idea that the pillars, as well as the sockets or 
sills on which they stood, were of metal ; but this is evi- 
dently a mistake. The Hebrew original gives no defini- 
tive information concerning the material of which they 
were made. It is said, however, that their capitals were 
overlaid with silver ; and, from this, one might infer that, 
as wood was the material on which gold was laid, so the 
capitals beneath the silver plate were of wood. The 
number of them is specified as twenty on each side, and 
ten on each end ; which, unless those at the corners are 
twice counted, would give a total of sixty. They must 

1 It seems improbable that needle-work would have been expended on the 
drapery of the court, and not on the curtains of the house itself, and the word Dp"^ 
which the English translators regarded as the equivalent of to embroider, signifies, 
of itself, to variegate, leaving it undecided whether the work were done in the 
loom, or with the needle. 

2 Exod. xxvii. 10. 



HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 



have been placed, therefore, at intervals of seven feet and 
a half; or, in other words, the distance between the 
pillars was equal to the height of the hangings. They 
were connected by a silver rod, or fillet, extending from 
one capital to another. 

The tabernacle was to stand near the western end of 
this enclosure, and midway, doubtless, between its north- 
ern and southern curtains. A large area was therefore 
left in front of the edifice for the performance of those 
rites of worship which were appropriate to the place. 

The several parts of the sanctuary itself, and of the 
screen by which its court was to be secured from the 
tread and gaze of the multitude, being now prepared, we 
proceed, in the next chapter, to describe the furniture 
which Moses was required to provide for the building 
and for its court 



CHAPTER II. 

THE FURNITURE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

Of all the appurtenances of the tabernacle, the highest 
in the estimation of the Hebrews was a chest of acacia- 
wood three feet and nine inches in length, one foot and 
three inches both in width and in height, plated within 
and without with gold, which they called the ark. 

Around it was a band of gold called a crown. This 
name would seem to indicate that the band was wrought 
in imitation of leaves and flowers, a crown having origin- 
ally consisted of such materials, and having retained the 
semblance of them when the perishable chaplet gave 
place to the unfading gold. The specifications do not 
state how far from the base of the ark this crown 
was attached ; and some have assumed that, as a crown, it 
must necessarily have been placed at the top. But 
a crown, or that which is translated " crown," was not, in 
the conception of the ancients, necessarily placed at the 
head, or superior extremity of an object. It was merely 
a cincture of living foliage, or of gold wrought to imi- 
tate such symbols of life. When put upon a person, his 
head would be the only right place for it ; but the pro- 
priety of placing it there is evidently founded in the 
nature of man rather than of the symbol. It was a 

31 



32 HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 



practice of the heathen to adorn their altars with gar- 
lands and flowers, which apparently were not placed 
around the upper edge, but lower down in horizontal fil- 
lets or in festoons. We are not shut up, therefore, to the 
necessity of believing that the crown was attached to the 
ark at its upper edge to keep its lid in place, as some 
have assumed. It may have been an ornamental band 
of gold, wrought in imitation of leaves and flowers, and 
attached just above the rings and staves, by means 
of which the ark was borne from place to place. This 
seems probable when we learn that the rings of the altar 
of incense were just beneath the similar ornament with 
which that utensil was surrounded. If such was the 
position of the crown of the ark, the lid doubtless had a 
band of its own to finish its edge, and hold it in place. 

The rings just mentioned were of solid metal, like the 
ornamental cincture, and four in number, one at each 
corner. They held in place two staves of acacia-wood 
overlaid with gold, by means of which the Levites might 
bear the ark on their shoulders. In the absence of 
specific information, we may conjecture that the rings 
were nearer the bottom than the top, the honor due to 
the instruments of holy ministration requiring that they 
should be exalted as high above the shoulders of the 
bearers as was consistent with evenness of motion. 
A reader of the English version might infer that the 
staves were parallel with the longer sides of the ark ; but 
the original does not determine how they were put into 
the rings, and decorum seems to require that they should 
be inserted so as to carry the front of the ark toward the 
front of the caravan. The staves, unlike those belonging 
to the other utensils of the tabernacle, must not be 



THE FURNITURE OF THE TABERNACLE. 33 

removed from their rings, but remain in place while the 
ark was at rest. 

The lid of the ark was of pure, solid gold ; and two 
cherubs of the same material stood upon it, one at each 
end, face to face, and stretching forth their wings over 
the ark. The position and attitude of these figures 
make it necessary to infer that they were of small size ; 
but their exact measure is not known. This golden 
cover was called the mercy-seat, or throne of grace ; and 
is sometimes mentioned by this name, as if it were some- 
thing independent of the ark. More frequently, how- 
ever, it is in some way connected with the sacred coffer 
beneath. Upon it, when the ark had been deposited in 
its appointed place within the sanctuary, rested a pillar 
of cloud, as the visible manifestation of that invisible 
being known in Israel by the name "Jehovah of hosts 
that dwelleth between the cherubim." 1 It was in par- 
ticular what the whole tabernacle was, the dwelling-place 
of Jehovah, the place where he would meet his people ; 
it was the point in which the significance of the whole 
institution centred. In the specifications, Jehovah says 
to Moses, as the representative of the covenant people, 
" There will I meet with thee ; and I will commune with 
thee from above the mercy-seat, from between the two 
cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony." 2 

Within the ark were deposited, according to the direc- 
tion given to Moses, the two tablets of stone on which 
Jehovah had written, with his own finger, the words of 
the Ten Commandments proclaimed on Sinai, out of the 
midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness. 
These commandments being called sometimes the testi- 



1 2 Sam. vi. 2. 



2 Exod. xxv. 22. 



34 HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 

mony, because they testified of the character and will of 
God ; and at other times the covenant, because they were 
at the foundation of that mutual engagement by which 
Jehovah was the God of the Hebrews, and they were his 
people, — the coffer which contained the tablets was called 
the ark of the testimony, and also the ark of the cove- 
nant. 

There has been a difference of opinion on the question 
whether the ark contained any thing more than the two 
tablets of stone. The writer of the Epistle to the He- 
brews says that the innermost apartment of the tabernacle 
" had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant over- 
laid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that 
had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables 
of the covenant; and over it the cherubim of glory 
shadowing the mercy-seat." 1 But in the First Book of the 
Kings it is written, " There was nothing in the ark save 
the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, 
when the Lord made a covenant with the children of 
Israel." 2 If inspiration is of such a nature that not even 
the least discrepancy may be allowed in those who claim 
to be inspired, these two statements may be reconciled 
on the theory that the passage in the First Book of the 
Kings testifies only of what was true on the day when 
the ark was deposited, with suitable public ceremonies, in 
the temple. Consistently with that testimony, it may be 
true, that, at an earlier period, the pot of manna, and 
the rod which blossomed, were laid up in the ark with 
the tablets of stone. There is nothing, however, in the 
Old Testament to substantiate such a supposition. The 
original record concerning the pot of manna reads as 

i Heb. ix. 4, 5. 2 i Kings viii. 9. 



THE FURNITURE OF THE TABERNACLE. 35 

follows : " And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a pot, and 
put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up before 
the Lord, to be kept for your generations. As the Lord 
commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the testi- 
mony, to be kept." 1 As respects Aaron's rod, the nar- 
rative is in these words : " And Moses spake unto the 
children of Israel, and every one of their princes gave 
him a rod apiece, for each prince one, according to their 
fathers' houses, even twelve rods ; and the rod of Aaron 
was among their rods. And Moses laid up the rods be- 
fore the Lord in the tabernacle of witness. And it came 
to pass, that on the morrow Moses went into the taber- 
nacle of witness ; and, behold, the rod of Aaron for the 
house of Levi was budded, and brought forth buds, and 
bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds. And Moses 
brought out all the rods from before the Lord unto all 
the children of Israel ; and they looked, and took every 
man his rod. And the Lord said unto Moses, Bring 
Aaron's rod again before the testimony, to be kept for a 
token against the rebels." 2 

From these quotations, it appears that the rod and the 
manna were deposited near, but not within, the ark of 
the testimony. But even this account does not forbid 
the supposition that afterward they were kept within the 
ark, till, in some way unknown to us, they were lost. On 
such an hypothesis, the passage quoted from the First 
Book of the Kings has a deeper significance than if the 
ark had never contained any thing but the tablets of 
stone. 

The appointed place for the ark of the covenant was 
in the holy of holies ; where it probably stood in the mid- 

1 Exod. xvi. 33, 34. 2 Num. xvii. 6-10. 



36 



HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 



die of the chamber, with the longer sides toward the east 
and the west respectively, and the cherubs looking north- 
ward and southward, toward each other. Besides the 
ark of the covenant with its contents, and the vessel 
containing manna, nothing was placed in the inner cham- 
ber at the time when the sanctuary was erected. The 
ark, with the mercy-seat, was all which Moses was di- 
rected to make for this apartment. We shall be ready, 
therefore, to pass to the furniture constructed for the 
outer apartment as soon as we have given proper consid- 
eration to the pot of manna. 

The stock of provisions which the Hebrews had 
brought with them from Egypt soon began to fail ; and 
the scarcity increased till, in four weeks after the exodus, 
the people came to Moses and Aaron with murmurs of 
dissatisfaction and reproach. The hunger of the people 
was appeased by means of a miracle, which covered the 
earth the same evening with quails, and the next morn- 
ing with a substance they had hitherto not known, but 
learned from this time onward to use as a substitute f or 
bread. It was " a small round thing, as small as the 
hoar-frost on the ground," 1 of a white color, in shape 
and size like coriander-seed, and in taste like wafers made 
with honey. 2 It is described as resembling bdellium in 
color, and fresh olive-oil in taste. 3 

It was necessary to give some name to this new sub- 
stance ; and so the people called it " manna ; " which in the 
margin is translated, " What is it f " and also, " is a por- 
tion" 4 The last named is probably the true signiflca- 



1 Exod. xvi. 14. 
s Num. xi. 7, 8. 



2 Exod. xvi. 31. 
4 Exod. xvi. 15. 



THE FURNITURE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



tion. The people recognized it as their portion, or gift, 
from God. By direction of Moses, they gathered enough 
for one day's supply ; and after beating it in a mortar, or 
grinding it in a mill, they made cakes, and baked them as 
a substitute for bread. 1 

Of this manna, a constant supply was miraculously pro- 
vided from this time till they had passed the Jordan, and 
arrived in the promised land. Many recent scholars make 
concession to the rationalistic tendency which would 
eliminate every thing supernatural from the Scriptures, 
and under pressure of the fact that there is a tree in 
Arabia which yields a gum resembling somewhat the 
manna described in the Pentateuch, and called " manna " 
by the natives, admit the identity of the two ; thus reducing 
the miracle to whatever there might be that was super- 
natural in spreading it daily around the camp of Israel, 
in sufficient quantity for so great a multitude. But there 
is no evidence that the Arabic name of this gum is as 
ancient as the time of Moses. The name may have been 
given on account of its supposed resemblance to the 
manna with which the Hebrews were fed in their jour- 
ney. The resemblance, indeed, is incomplete between 
this manna and that mentioned in the books of Moses. 
Robinson, who brought some of it from the convent at 
Sinai, says that, of all the characteristics of the manna 
described in Scripture, not one is applicable to the pres- 
ent manna ; 2 and Stanley testifies that there are " but 
few points of similarity." 3 

The manna with which the Hebrews were fed being, 
then, not a product of nature, but a miraculous gift, we 

1 Num. xi. 8. 2 Biblical Researches: vol. i. p. 170. 

3 Sinai and Palestine : p. 28. 
4 



3§ 



HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 



can see a reason why some of it should be preserved. 
Such a miracle was worthy to be held in remembrance 
not only by those who had been fed with this bread from 
heaven, but by their posterity ; and therefore the com- 
mand was given : " Fill an omer of it to be kept for your 
generations ; that they may see the bread wherewith I 
have fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth 
from the land of Egypt." 1 This pot of manna was to be 
deposited in the holy of holies, near the ark of the cove- 
nant. 

Of the furniture in the outer apartment of the taber- 
nacle, the article first mentioned in the directions given 
to Moses is the table of show-bread. 

Made of acacia-wood, and plated with gold, it was three 
feet long, one foot and six inches wide, two feet and 
three inches high. Around its verge was an ornamental 
cincture of solid gold, similar to that which adorned the 
ark. Beneath this was a border of wood four inches and 
a half wide, plated, of course, with gold, and adorned with 
another crown of gold. The table was furnished with 
golden rings at the corners, and with staves which were 
put through these rings when the table was to be carried 
on the shoulders of the Levites, but removed when the 
tabernacle had been erected in a new encampment, and 
the bearers had deposited their burden in its appointed 
position. The rings were attached at the same height 
as the wooden border ; but the specifications do not inti- 
mate how far above the ground this was affixed. The 
bas-relief on the Arch of Titus represents it as midway 
from the bottom to the top. The table carried to Rome 



1 Exod. xvi. 32. 



Fig. it. 

TABLE OF SHOW-BREAD FROM THE ARCH OF TITUS. 




V 



Fig. 13. 
ASSYRIAN TABLE. 




Fig. 14 
ASSYRIAN TABLE. 



Fig. 15. 
ASSYRIAN STOOL. 



THE FURNITURE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



by Titus, with other trophies from Jerusalem, was, how- 
ever, of later date than that in the tabernacle. The 
Roman artist, moreover, had no motive to exactness of 
representation, and has shown his disregard of it by 
making one side of the table longer than the other, as 
well as by introducing eagles into the ornamentation of 
the chandelier. The sculptures recently discovered at 
Nineveh exhibit patterns of tables, and other similar ar- 
ticles of furniture, with feet in the similitude of ox-hoofs 
and lion-paws, and a fillet just above the feet. These 
patterns of ancient art may, perhaps, suggest how the, 
rings could be on the border of the table, and also " on 
the corners that are on the four feet thereof." 1 The 
feet of the table on the Arch of Titus were evidently 
designed to suggest an imitation of the feet of some 
animal. 

On the opposite side of the apartment was the golden 
chandelier, or candlestick as it is called in the English 
version, though it supported lamps, and not candles. It 
consisted of a main shaft, with three branches diverging 
from it on each side. But nothing is said of its height, or 
of any of its dimensions ; so that, in regard to its size, we 
are left to our own conjectures, aided only by the record 
of its weight, and the testimony of Josephus that it was 
hollow. Some of the Jewish writers have maintained that 
it was three cubits, or four feet and a half high ; but 
Bahr 2 suggests valid reasons for believing that it was 
not so tall as the altar of incense. He thinks it was of 
the same height as the table, and that the distance 
between the extremities of its longest arms was equal to 
the height. It may not be amiss to notice also, in this 

1 Exod. xxv. 26. 2 Symbolik, vol. i. p. 416. 



4 o 



HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 



connection, that the original does not justify the English 
version in describing the chandelier as made of beaten 
work. The Hebrew word indicates, rather, that it was 
made wholly of gold, and not merely covered over with 
it. It is the same expression as that which indicates 
that the mercy-seat was of solid metal, and not, like the 
ark beneath it, of wood overlaid with gold. If hollow, it 
could hardly have been beaten into shape with the ham- 
mer, but must have been cast, perhaps in separate 
pieces, and afterward soldered together. 

The weight of it, including the lamps and a few small 
utensils used in trimming them, was a Hebrew talent, or 
about one hundred and thirteen pounds troy ; which in 
gold coin would be equivalent to about ($27,000) twen- 
ty-seven thousand dollars. 

There was a threefold ornamentation in the chande- 
lier, repeated four times in the main shaft, and thrice in 
each of the branches, described as a bowl, a knob, and a 
flower, and by some supposed to represent the cup-shaped 
calyx, the round fruit, and the open blossom, of an almond- 
tree. The word translated " flower " signifies, however, 
a stem ; and the order in which the triad is arranged 
indicates that the first was the flower, the second the 
fruit, and the third the stem. The three pairs of 
branches came out of the main stem at the three places 
of junction between its four sections of calyx, fruit, and 
stem. 

On the upper extremities of the chandelier were seven 
eye-shaped, or almond-shaped lamps ; the wick of the mid- 
dle lamp projecting from its west end, and the wicks of 
the others from the end of the lamp nearest to the main 
shaft. These lamps were not fastened to the chandelier, 




Fig. 16. 

CHANDELIER FROM THE ARCH OF TITUS. 




Fig. 17. 
CHANDELIER. 



THE FURNITURE OF THE TABERNACLE. 41 

but so placed upon it that the priest could remove them 
when he came in the morning to extinguish and trim 
them, and in the evening to light them for the night. 
But, though not fastened to the stand as a part of it, they 
had each its appointed place in the row, and never 
exchanged places. It seems so natural that the row 
of lamps should have been parallel with the south wall of 
the tabernacle, near which it stood, that almost all writers 
have passed over the testimony of Josephus to the con- 
trary ; who is careful to state that " the lamps looked to 
the east and to the south, the candlestick being placed 
obliquely." 1 

At the west end of this outer apartment, in front of 
the curtain which separated it from the holy of holies, 
stood the altar of incense, 2 three feet high, with four 
equal sides, each one foot and six inches in horizontal 
measure. It consisted of a frame of acacia-wood, with 
horns of the same material at the four upper cor- 
ners, plated over all the external surface with gold. It 
was not left open at the top, like the great altar of burnt- 
offering, but covered with a board of acacia-wood, over- 
laid with gold like the four vertical sides ; and this 
cover is designated by the word which signifies the roof 
of a house. Like the ark and the table, it had rings for 
convenience in transporting it, and a pair of gilded 
staves, which, however, did not remain in the rings when 

1 Antiquities, book iii. ch. vi. §7. 

2 Some have erroneously concluded from the direction in Exod. xl. 5, "Thou 
shalt set the altar of gold for the incense before the ark of the testimony," that 
this altar stood in the holy of holies, and have confirmed themselves in the mistake 
by regarding the censer mentioned in Heb. ix. 4, as identical with it. The altar 
of incense was before the ark, but also before and not behind the partition-veil. 
See Exod. xl. 26. 



4 2 



HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 



the altar was in place. Just above the rings was a 
crown, or cincture, of the kind we have described as 
affixed to the ark and the table. The roof of the altar 
may have had a rim at its edge, unmentioned in the 
directions to the artisans because such an appendage to a 
roof is a matter of course in the Orient. The incense 
was probably burned in a censer placed on the top of 
the altar ; the ashes remaining in, and being carried away 
with, the censer. 

It remains to describe the appurtenances of the taber- 
nacle which stood in the open air ; and of these we will 
speak first of the altar of burnt-offering. It was made 
of the wood already mentioned as used in the construc- 
tion of the tabernacle and its furniture. In its dimen- 
sions it was four feet and six inches high, and seven feet 
and six inches in the horizontal measure of each of its 
four sides. On the corners were the projections usually 
found on altars, and known as horns. The whole wood- 
work, consisting of the four sides and the four horns, 
was covered with plates of copper. It cannot be deter- 
mined from the specifications how the fire was held in 
place on the top of the altar. Formerly the opinion 
prevailed that there was a net-work, or grate of copper, 
suspended within the frame by a ring at each of the 
four corners; but a more careful exegesis has shown 
that the net-work mentioned by Moses was an attach- 
ment outside of the altar, the four rings at its corners 
being expressly designated as made for the staves by 
which the altar was carried from station to station. 1 
According to the best commentators, it was in a ver- 

1 Exod. xxvii. 7. 




Fig. iS. 
ALTAR OF INCENSE. 



THE FURNITURE OF THE TABERNACLE, 43 

tical position, was in planes parallel with the four sides 
of the frame, rose to half their height, and supported the 
outer edge of a bench, or platform, which at the other 
edge was fastened to the frame of the altar. 1 

A Jewish tradition affirms that the frame was filled 
with earth at each place of encampment. Perhaps the 
reason why Moses does not mention this is, that a 
statute previously given required that all altars should 
consist of earth, or of unhewn stones ; so that it was, in 
his mind, a matter of course that the hollow box would 
contain, when ready for use, one of these canonical 
materials. The specifications being for the use of the 
artisans who were to construct the frame, he had no 
occasion to inform them that it was to be filled with 
earth. 

Divers utensils of copper were made for the ministra- 
tion of the priests at the altar ; such as ash-pans and 
shovels, bowls for the blood of the victims, flesh-hooks 
for placing the sacrifices on the fire, and fire-pans 
wherein the sacred fire was kept burning while they 
cleaned the altar. 

This altar of burnt-offering was placed in the court 
between the entrance-gate and the tabernacle, and nearer 
to the latter than to the former, but at a sufficient dis- 
tance to allow room for a large vessel containing water 
to stand between the altar and the sanctuary. 

The vessel just mentioned, called in the English ver- 
sion a laver of brass, was for the ablutions of the priests 
when they were about to minister at the altar, or to 

1 This more correct idea of the copper lattice, or net-work, belonging to the 
altar, was first given to the world by J. F. von Meyer. 



44 



HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 



enter the tabernacle. The metal of which it consisted 
was supplied from the contributions of the women, who 
were so zealous that they gave up their mirrors, to be 
converted into this sacred utensil. Nothing is said of 
the dimensions of the laver ; but it would doubtless be 
inconvenient to have it of small size, as in that case it 
must be often replenished. As for the shape, we are 
informed that there was a pedestal under it, and have no 
reason to doubt, that, like most vessels for containing 
water, it was round. It would, therefore, with its cup- 
shaped reservoir standing on a pedestal, present to the 
spectator an outline resembling that of vessels known 
by the generic name of vases. It is scarcely necessary 
to add, that the priests, when they washed their hands 
and feet at this laver, did not put them into it, but drew 
the water into some smaller vessel ; or, more probably, as 
it ran out through faucets in a stream to the ground, 
put their hands or their feet into the stream, and washed 
themselves in running water, after the Oriental custom. 

Having now surveyed the construction of the compo- 
nent parts of the tabernacle, and taken notice of the 
several articles of its furniture, we are to attend, in the 
next chapter, to the process of its erection and the at- 
tendant ceremonies of consecration. 

1 " Looking-glasses " were not used before the thirteenth century of the 
Christian era ; and it is unaccountable that the translators should apply that term 
to mirrors which they knew to be metallic. The mirrors of the ancients were of 
different metals ; but those of the Egyptians, according to Wilkinson, chiefly of 
copper. Doubtless the mirrors of the Hebrew women were such as they had used 
in Egypt, made either of pure copper, or of that metal slightly alloyed with tin ; 
which admixture, it is said, has been found by experience to be best adapted to the 
purpose. See Smith's Bible Dictionary, article " Mirror." 



Fig. 20. 

GROUND PLAN OF THE ONE HUNDRED SILVER SILLS. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE ERECTION OF THE TABERNACLE. 

The constituent parts of the tabernacle, being finished, 
were submitted to the inspection of Moses, and by him 
approved. Then came an order from Jehovah for the 
erection of the edifice on the first day of the approach- 
ing new year. 

A temporary sanctuary had been set up outside of the 
camp, and at some distance from it, whither Moses had 
been accustomed to go for converse with Jehovah during 
the months of preparation. This provisional tent is first 
mentioned as being removed out of the camp in testimo- 
ny of the displeasure of God, on account of the golden 
calf which the people had made and worshipped. It 
remained outside of the camp till superseded by the more 
elaborate tabernacle now to be erected. This was to 
stand not only within the camp, but in its very centre. 

At this place, therefore, began the work of erection. 
Forty of the silver sill-pieces were laid down in a line 
running east and west ; at the west end of this line an 
angle was formed by placing two corner sills in position ; 
twelve sills were laid in a line running north and south 
from the corner ; two corner sills were then laid down, 
and then the forty pieces which formed the line parallel 
with the first. Each of these sills fitted close to its fel- 

45 



4 6 



HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 



low. The four sills of silver which remained were placed 
at equal distances apart, in a line parallel with the west 
end, and fifteen feet east of it. The planks were then 
set up, each plank standing 'on two sill-pieces ; the bars 
were put through the staples in the planks, and the frame 
was thus complete. Four pillars were then set up on the 
silver sills mentioned above as placed in a line parallel 
with the west end and fifteen feet east of it ; and five 
pillars were set on sills of copper, across the edifice at 
the east end. The woodwork had now been erected, and 
was ready for the drapery. 

If the first curtain hung down on the inside, as Bahr 
maintains, there must have been some apparatus for 
suspending it, of which we have no account. There 
might be hooks and rings by means of which it could be 
easily and speedily put in place. But if, as the older 
writers believed, it was thrown over the outside of the 
planks, the work of adjusting it so that it should reach 
from front to rear, and hang down on the back end and 
on the sides nearly but not quite to the lower end of the 
planks, could be not less easily and speedily accom- 
plished. The curtain of goat's hair was now put over 
the tapestry, probably with the half of one width at the 
east end reaching beyond it, and hanging down in front. 
Such an arrangement would "break joints" by bringing 
the seams of the upper curtain over the middle of the 
webs of the lower. The size of the second curtain was 
such that it would reach eighteen inches lower than the 
first, on the supposition that the first hung outside of the 
frame. The two coverings of leather being then suc- 
cessively put in place, it might be said that " the taberna- 
cle was reared up." 



THE ERECTION OF THE TABERNACLE. 47 

This work of erection was performed under the imme- 
diate supervision of Moses, and occupied, as we may 
believe, only a few minutes. The edifice was designedly 
so constructed that it could be taken down any day after 
the morning worship, and set up again when the caravan 
had arrived at a new station, in time for the evening sac- 
rifice. On this occasion of its first erection, the tribe of 
Levi had not yet been consecrated ; and we are left to 
conjecture whether Moses called them to his aid, or 
employed as his agents some of the artisans by whom the 
parts had been prepared. 

The many and diverse parts of the edifice being now 
joined together, the result, at this stage in the proceed- 
ings, was a splendid but empty tabernacle. The various 
articles of furniture were, however, immediately brought, 
and placed in position. Moses put the two tablets of 
stone on which God had written, with his own finger, the 
commands of the Decalogue, into the ark ; covered them 
with the lid of pure gold which was to be the mercy-seat ; 
placed the staves, by means of which the ark was to be 
transported, in the rings ; and brought the ark into the 
tabernacle,-and hung up the partition-veil in front of it. 
The holy of holies being thus finished and furnished, " he 
put the table in the tent of the congregation, upon the 
side of the tabernacle northward, without the veil, and 
set the bread in order upon it before Jehovah ; " " and he 
put the candlestick in the tent of the congregation, over 
against the table, on the side of the tabernacle south- 
ward, and lighted the lamps before Jehovah ; " " and he 
put the golden altar in the tent of the congregation 
before the veil, and burnt sweet incense thereon ; " " and 
he set up the hanging at the door of the tabernacle ; and 



4 S 



HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 



he put the altar of burnt offering by the door of the 
tabernacle of the tent of the congregation, and offered 
upon it the burnt offering and the meat offering ; " " and 
he set the laver between the tent of the congregation and 
the altar, and put water there, to wash withal ; and Moses 
and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their 
feet thereat : when they went into the tent of the congre- 
gation, and when they came near to the altar, they 
washed." 1 

These quotations from the common English version 
clearly and concisely relate how the various utensils con- 
structed for the holy place and for the court were brought 
in, placed in position, and applied for the first time to 
the uses for which they were designed. 

It only remained to set up the screen around the court. 
The ground having been measured, the posts were put in 
place, each on its sill-piece of copper, and fastened with 
cords and pins. The drapery was hung from post to 
post, so as to form a screen around the whole court, 
unbroken except at the east end, where was an entrance- 
way thirty feet wide, over which Moses hung the curtain 
already described as fabricated for the purpose. 

The work of erection being finished, the pillar of cloud, 
which had hitherto distinguished the temporary taber- 
nacle outside of the camp, came and rested upon the new 
sanctuary as a visible and public testimony that Jehovah 
was pleased with, and accepted it as his dwelling-place. 
This was the fulfilment of a promise which God had 
made before the work of construction began, namely, 
" the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory ; " 2 for not 
only was there a pillar of cloud resting upon the edifice, 

1 Exod. xl. 22-32. 2 Exod. xxix. 43. 



\ 




Fig. 24, 

GROUND PLAN OF THE EDIFICE INCLUDING THE COURT 



THE ERECTION OF THE TABERNACLE. 49 

but a pillar of flame within it so bright and glorious, that 
Moses was not able to enter, " because the cloud abode 
thereon, and the glory of Jehovah filled the tabernacle." 1 

On the same day, however, and probably before the 
sanctuary was thus rendered inaccessible, Moses conse- 
crated it, and all its vessels, by touching them with the oil 
of unction, a compound of olive-oil and spices which he 
had been directed to prepare according to a given pre- 
scription, and which it was a crime to compound or 
employ for any other than sacred uses. 

On the same day also commenced a series of offerings 
from the different tribes ; the prince or head of each tribe 
appearing as the representative of his kindred, and in 
their name presenting an offering. On that first day of 
the new year six covered wagons and twelve oxen — a 
wagon for two of the princes, and for each prince an ox 
— were brought before the tabernacle, and publicly pre- 
sented to Moses for its service. By divine direction he 
received them, and assigned them to the Levites for 
the transportation of the various parts of the structure 
that were not appointed to be borne on their shoulders. 
The princes expressing a desire to make still further 
offerings, and especially such as were appropriate to the 
dedication of the altar of burnt offering, Moses assigned 
one day to each of the twelve princes in which he might 
bring gifts for the altar. On the first of these twelve 
festive days, the representative of the tribe of Judah 
presented his offering. The other princes had each his 
day ; but the offerings, undoubtedly by pre-arrangement, 
were alike. Each brought two silver vessels full of fine 

1 Exod. xl. 35. 

5 



So 



HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 



flour mingled with oil ; one golden vessel full of incense ; 
a bullock, a ram, and a lamb of the first year, for a burnt 
offering ; a kid for a sin offering ; and, for a sacrifice of 
peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five he-goats, and five 
lambs of the first year. " This," says the inspired histo- 
rian, " was the dedication of the altar after that it was 
anointed." 1 

But parallel with these ceremonies of dedication was 
another series of ceremonies with which Aaron and his 
sons were consecrated to the priesthood. These we 
shall have occasion to describe in the next chapter, and 
will therefore only take time to say at present that they 
commenced on the first day of the new year, and reached 
through seven days, each succeeding day being an exact 
repetition of the first. On the eighth day the priests, 
being now fully consecrated, commenced the performance 
of sacerdotal functions, which, up to this time, had been 
performed by Moses himself; and, to the great joy of 
the people, Jehovah signified his acceptance of them as 
his priests, by sending fire from the pillar of fire in the 
sanctuary, to consume the burnt offering which Aaron 
had laid upon the altar. 

But joy was soon turned to mourning when Nadab and 
Abihu, the eldest and, the second of Aaron's sons, in 
audacious neglect of the directions given them, having 
put common fire into their censers for burning incense 
in the holy place, instead of taking from the altar the 
holy fire which Jehovah himself had kindled, were 
instantly smitten with destruction, before they could 
reach the door of the sanctuary. There is reason to 
believe that this sacrilegious contempt was due to the use 

i Num. vii. 88. 



THE ERECTION OF THE TABERNACLE. 5 1 



of wine, which had flowed freely amid the double festiv- 
ities of the dedication of the tabernacle and the conse- 
cration of its priests. A command was immediately 
given that Aaron and his sons should abstain entirely 
from wine and strong drink when on duty about the 
tabernacle. . 

This double series of ceremonies having lasted through 
seven days, and the priests having now assumed the 
functions of their office, the offerings of the dedication 
continued, as we have said, till the thirteenth day, ex- 
hausting all the days of the month which preceded the 
first anniversary of their flight from Egypt. 

By special divine direction, the feast of the passover 
was celebrated for the next seven days. As this is the 
only celebration of that festival while the Israelites were 
on their journey, of which there is any account, and as 
the ordinance by which it was instituted did not require 
its celebration till after they had arrived in the promised 
land, it is reasonable to believe that it was enjoined 
at this time for this, among other reasons : that, occurring, 
as it did, just after the erection of the tabernacle, it 
prolonged for another week tjie solemn and joyous cere- 
monies appropriate to that event. 1 

1 The first mention of the ceremonies of the passover is in connection with the 
exodus from Egypt, when the Israelites were required to eat the paschal lamb 
on the night of their departure. Accompanying the requirement to perform this 
ceremony, was a charge to do the same thing annually, forever ; but with an intima- 
tion that it was to be observed in the promised land. The words are, " It shall 
come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the Lord will give you according 
as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service " (Exod. xii. 25 ). When the in- 
stitution is next mentioned, it is with a similar reference to the country in which they 
were to be settled (Exod. xiii. 5). The law concerning the passover requires that 
they should not sacrifice the paschal lamb within any of their gates, but at the place 
which Jehovah might "choose to place his name in ; " an&that all the males should 
then and there present themselves before Jehovah (Deut. xvi. 5, 6, 15). Though 



5 2 



HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 



Time was found, however, before the paschal lamb was 
sacrificed, for the consecration of the Levites ; they not 
being included with the priests when the solemn ser- 
vices were performed seven days in succession, by which 
the latter were set apart for the service of God. This 
service of purifying the Levites probably took place on 
the morning of the fourteenth day; the celebration 
of the passover commencing when that day came to an 
end at the setting of the sun. 2 

The extraordinary services consequent upon the first 
erection of the sanctuary, having continued for three 
weeks, terminated at the close of the festival of the 
passover. The edifice remained standing for nearly four 
weeks afterward before the signal was given for removal. 

It stood, as has been already observed, in the centre 
of the camp. Let us carefully survey the scene. Here 
are three millions of people 3 encamped around a hollow 

there is nothing in the nature of the case, as there is in regard to the fes- 
tivals of first fruits and of tabernacles, which required the celebration of the 
passover to commence with the entrance into Canaan, yet the letter of the statute 
requires it -as much in respect to this festival as to those ; so that in the absence 
of any mention of its observance, save in the one case where it was specially 
enjoined in connection with the settings of the tabernacle, it is reasonable to be- 
lieve that there was no observance of the passover between the removal from Sinai 
and the passage of the Jordan. The legislation presupposes a speedy arrival in 
the promised land, which would doubtless have been a fact but for the rebellious 
unbelief and cowardice of the people. 

2 Deut. xvi. 6. 

3 The census taken at Sinai gives 603,550 fighting men ; which, not including 
Levites, would indicate a total of about 3,000,000 of men, women, and children. 
The census taken on the plains of Moab, some thirty-seven or thirty-eight years 
after, gives 601,730 fighting men ; so that there had been no increase, and no great 
decrease, of the population. 

Some writers are unnecessarily distrustful of these numbers. If only the totals 
had been given, there might have been some room to suspect that an accident had 
made them read differently from what was originally written ; but in both cases the 
number of men in each tribe able to go to war is specified, and then the total ; so 



THE ERECTION OF THE TABERNACLE. 



square of so great magnitude, that, with the exception of 
the appointed attendants on the tabernacle, none are 
nearer to it than three thousand feet. 1 If we estimate 
the width of the belt of tents at the same measure, we 
have a square of twelve thousand feet, or more than two 
miles on a side. 

The tents are arranged in four divisions ; three tribes 
constituting a division, and occupying one side of the 
square under a common standard. The tribes of Judah, 
Issachar, and Zebulon are on the east side, in front of 
the sanctuary, under the standard of Judah; Reuben, 
Simeon, and Gad are on the south, under the standard of 
Reuben ; Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin are in the 
rear of the tabernacle, under the standard of Ephraim ; 
Dan, Asher, and Naphtali are on the north, under the 

that an accident in any of the items would have given a different total, and vice 
versa. There is no reason to doubt that the statistics, as we read them, are pre- 
cisely as they were originally written. But if there were more than 600,000 men 
of twenty years old upward, the total sum of the people must have been about 
3,000,000. 1 

The difficulty of finding subsistence for such a multitude seems, at first thought, 
to forbid assent to this conclusion, but diminishes as one remembers that what is 
called ' 1 a wilderness ' ' was not a desert, but only an uncultivated region abounding 
in pasturage, and therefore available for the sustentation of shepherds and herds- 
men ; and that the scarcity of cereals was compensated by the daily miracle of the 
manna. 

The impossibility of accounting for the existence of so numerous a people in so 
short a time after the removal of Jacob and his sons to Egypt, which some have 
imagined, is not felt by those who, like Ewald, believe that the descendants of 
Jacob were joined, in their escape from Egypt, by thousands who were of the same 
religion, but not of the same blood. Even without any considerable admixture of 
proselytes, it is not impossible that a race so prolific as to excite the apprehensions 
of the Egyptian monarch may have increased in four centuries to 3,000,000. 

1 This is the distance at which the people were required to keep from the ark 
when they followed it through the Jordan (Josh. iii. 4) ; and the Jewish tradition 
assigns the same measure to the width of the open space between the tabernacle 
and the tents of the twelve lay tribes. 
5* 



54 



HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 



standard of Dan. 1 These standards were flags of dif- 
ferent colors ; each flag corresponding in color, as Jewish 
writers allege, with the stone in the pectoral of the high 
priest on which the name of the tribe represented by 
that flag is engraven. 

Each division is subdivided into three tribal camps ; 
the standard-bearing tribe occupying the centre, with an 
associate tribe on either wing. 

Within the hollow square formed by these four grand 
divisions of the Hebrews, and at a distance of three 
thousand feet from the innermost tents, is the tabernacle 
of Jehovah, surrounded by the dwellings of its appointed 
attendants. 

l Num. ii. 1-31. 




Fig. 25. 

PLAN OF THE ENCAMPMENT. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE ATTENDANTS OF THE TABERNACLE. 

We should naturally expect that the edifice erected by 
the Israelites, with so great an outlay of labor and mate- 
rial, to be the habitation of their national Deity, would 
be provided with a considerable number of persons ap- 
pointed to have charge of the building, and to perform 
those ministrations of religion, both daily and occasional, 
with which the nation was to acknowledge and honor 
their covenant God ; but not many would anticipate so 
extensive a provision as that by which an entire tribe 
was consecrated to this service. The surprise with 
which we learn that all the males of the tribe of Levi are 
to be set apart to the service of the tabernacle is, how- 
ever, somewhat reduced on learning that this was by far 
the least numerous of the tribes. All its males, from one 
month old upward, numbered only twenty-two thousand ; 
while the tribe of Judah had seventy-four thousand six 
hundred men, of twenty years old upward, enrolled for 
military service ; and the average number of persons sub- 
ject to military duty in the several tribes, counting Eph- 
raim and Manasseh as two tribes, was more than fifty 
thousand. It is worthy of remark, that the tribe of Levi 
was set apart for the service of Jehovah in place of the 
first-born males in all the families of the nation, who 

55 



56 HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 

were consecrated to him in memory of the passover and of 
the distinction then made between Hebrew and Egyptian 
families ; and that it was ordained that the substitution 
should be of man for man, the excess in the number of the 
first-born over the number of the descendants of Levi 
being redeemed with money paid into the treasury of the 
tabernacle. According to the census taken in connection 
with this substitution, there were twenty-two thousand 
males of the tribe of Levi, and twenty-two thousand two 
hundred and seventy-three first-born males, in the nation ; 
enumerating, in both cases, all who were one month old 
upward. 

The tribe thus set apart to have charge of the sanc- 
tuary in behalf of the entire people was divided into three 
companies ; each company being the descendants of one 
of the three sons of Levi. The descendants of Merari 
had charge of the planks of acacia which formed the 
frame of the tabernacle, of the silver sill-pieces, and of 
the pillars around the court, with their bases, pins, and 
cords. It was their duty, when the encampment was 
removed, to take these articles from the position they 
had occupied as a constituent part of the sanctuary, load 
them on four wagons assigned for this service, transport 
them to the station appointed for a new encampment, 
and there re-erect the sacred edifice, 

The descendants of Gershon had charge of the cur- 
tains, with the exception of the partition-veil between 
the holy place and the holy of holies, which went with 
the ark it was appointed to conceal. To this division 
were assigned two wagons for the transportation of their 
charge. 

The descendants of Kohath, who were the near kins- 



THE ATTENDANTS OF THE TABERNACLE. 57 



men of Mcses and Aaron, were appointed to a more holy 
and responsible service than either of the other divisions, 
and were to perform it under the immediate superin- 
tendence of the priests. The ark of the covenant being 
first carefully covered by the priests with the veil which 
had been hanging in front of it, and then with layers of 
skin and cloth, and the other pieces of furniture being also 
suitably protected, the Kohathites were to carry them on 
their shoulders by means of the wooden staves provided 
for that purpose. But, though appointed to serve the 
tabernacle by carrying on their shoulders its " most holy 
things," they were not permitted to touch them, or even 
to behold . those which belonged within the sanctuary. 
A Kohathite going within the tabernacle before the holy 
things he was to carry had been covered by the priests, 
or laying his hand on the utensil he was bearing as the 
caravan moved from place to place, incurred the penalty 
of death. 

While the directions for this service of the Levites in 
the removal of the sanctuary are given in detail in the 
Pentateuch, there are no specific directions concerning 
their duty when the caravan was at rest. They were 
directed in general terms to do whatever the priests 
required. In later books we find, here and there, hints 
from which we learn that it was their task to prepare the 
show-bread, the fine flour for oblations on the altar, and 
the unleavened cakes into which the fine flour was some- 
times made before it was presented to the officiating 
priest ; to assist in bringing to the altar, and slaughtering, 
the animals offered in sacrifice ; to bring wood and water ; 
to furnish, out of their number, a band of musicians to play 
on instruments, and sing, in connection with the morning 



HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 



and evening sacrifices ; to clean the court and its utensils ; 
and generally to have charge of the sanctuary, including, 
doubtless, its protection from profane intrusion. 

For the more convenient discharge of these duties, 
and especially of the duty last named, the tribe of Levi 
was directed to encamp immediately around the sacred 
court in which the tabernacle stood. The tents of Moses 
and the priests were in front where they could exercise 
supervision ; their nearest kinsmen, the Kohathites, were 
on the south side ; the Gershonites, who had the drapery 
under their care, were in the rear ; and the descendants of 
Merari, whose special duty it was to set up and take 
down the woodwork of the edifice and its court, occupied 
the ground on the north. 

While the whole tribe of Levi was separated from the 
other tribes, for the service of the tabernacle, Aaron and 
his sons, who traced their lineage to Levi through Ko- 
hath, were called to a still wider separation from the peo- 
ple of the secular tribes ; they and their descendants 
being set apart as priests, with Aaron as their chief. At 
the time when Aaron and his descendants were thus 
called to the priesthood, he had four sons, — Nadab, 
Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. It was not long, however, 
before the first and second of these came to a violent 
death, as already mentioned ; and, as they left no chil- 
dren, the sacerdotal office was transmitted only to the 
descendants of Eleazar and Ithamar. 

There was a broad distinction between the priests and 
the other descendants of Levi, ^.jpriest was a Levite ; 
but a Levite waj>j]£>t^ and, if not a 

priest, was incompetent to officiate as principal in any 



THE ATTENDANTS OF THE TABERNACLE. 59 



religious service of the tabernacle. The Levites assisted 
the priests as their servants, performing under their 
direction such menial labor as was necessary, but were 
forbidden, on penalty of death, to take upon themselves 
any function of the priesthood. 

The family of Aaron were set apart to the sacerdotal 
office with formal rites of consecration, which included 
investment with peculiar and costly official garments, 
unction with the perfumed oil already mentioned, and a 
series of sacrifices of three different kinds. These cere- 
monies were repeated daily for seven days. 

The common Levites, so far as appears from the books 
of' Moses, had no official costume, but were habited like 
men of other tribes, as well when employed about the 
sanctuary as when not on duty ; 1 but priests were obliged 
to wear, when officiating, the garments pertaining to their 
office. Their investiture with these required insignia was 
one of the ceremonies ot consecration with which they 
were inducted into the priesthood. 

Of the eight articles of dress belonging to the official 
costume of the high-priest, four were common to him 
and his subordinates, and four were peculiar to his rank 
as chief. The four garments worn by the high-priest 
and his subordinates alike comprised the entire dress of 
a priest of ordinary rank when officiating. 2 They were 
the breeches, the coat, the girdle, and the bonnet, as 
they are severally named in the English version, all 
made of the superior sort of linen which the Hebrews 
called sheshy already mentioned in describing the curtains 

1 We read that in later times they were, at least on special occasions, clothed 
in white ; but this was probably not by divine command. 

2 Pictorial illustrations of the sacerdotal garments may be found in chap. xii. 
of part ii. 



/ 



60 HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 

of the tabernacle. The first to be put on was the 
breeches, or drawers, reaching from the loins to the mid- 
dle of the thighs. The coat, or tunic as we prefer to 
name it, was, like all such garments in the time of Moses, 
seamless, being woven in one piece. 1 It reached from 
the neck to the feet, and had sleeves. The directions 
required that it should be broidered, according to the 
English version, or, according to Gesenius, woven in 
squares. The girdle was variegated in blue, purple, and 
crimson ; the warp being of white, and the colors woven 
in as a part of the woof. Josephus describes it as going 
many times round, four fingers broad, but so loosely 
woven that you would think it were the skin of a ser- 
pent. 2 When the priest was at leisure, it hung from the 
knot where it was tied on the breast down to the ankles ; 
but, when he engaged in his official duties, he threw it 
over his left shoulder. The bonnet might more properly 
be called a turban. It was a long web of linen, wound 
many times around the head. 

To these four " garments of white," as they are called 
by some Jewish writers, comprising, as we have said, the 
entire official dress of a subordinate, the high-priest 
added four which were termed "garments of gold." 
These were the robe of the ephod, the ephod, the 
breastplate, and the mitre. The first to be put on was 
the robe of the ephod ; a blue tunic which had arm- 
holes, but no sleeves, extended from the shoulders 
downward to the calf of the leg, and was open only 
at the top and bottom. A strong binding was woven 

1 Braun: Vestitus Sacerdotum Hebraeorum. Amsterdam, 1698. Liber i. 
pp. 255-260. 

2 Antiquities, book iii. chap. vii. §2. 



THE ATTENDANTS OF THE TABERNACLE. 61 

around the aperture at the top ; and from the hem at the 
bottom were suspended colored tassels in the shape of 
pomegranates or apples, alternating with golden bells 
of about equal size. The number of the bells not being 
given in Scripture, it is sufficient to say that they were 
numerous, and to quote in proof the words of the writer 
of Ecclesiasticus, who says, " He compassed him with 
many little bells of gold all round about, that as he went 
there might be a sound and a noise made, that might be 
heard in the temple for a memorial to the children of his 
people." 1 The second of the four pieces peculiar to the 
high-priest was the ephod, a short garment hanging from 
the shoulders before and behind like two aprons, united 
on the shoulders, but disconnected below. The principal 
material was shesh ; and it was inwoven with figures of 
cunning device, in threads of gold, blue, purple, and crim- 
son. A girdle of the same material fastened these two 
parts of the ephod close to the body. This " curious 
girdle " seems to have been an integral part of the ephod 
itself, perhaps consisting of an appendage on either edge 
of one of the pendent pieces, formed when the cloth was 
in the loom. On the shoulder-pieces of the ephod were 
two large and splendid onyx-stones set in gold, engraven 
with the names of the twelve sons of Jacob, six names 
on each stone. The third of the garments peculiar to 
the high priest was the pectoral, or breastplate of judg- 
ment. This was a bag of the same kind of cloth as the 
ephod, made by folding a piece of the tapestry eigh- 
teen inches long, and nine inches wide, so as to form a 
square of nine inches. To the external fold of the cloth 
were attached twelve precious stones of twelve different 

1 Ch. xlv. 10, ii. 

6 



62 



HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 



kinds, arranged in four rows. Each stone was set in 
gold, and engraven with the name of one of the sons of 
Jacob. The breastplate was suspended from the shoul- 
ders by chains of gold, and was also fastened to the 
ephod by means of rings on its lower corners. The 
specifications for its construction close with a direction 
to put in it the Urim and Thummim ; as if these, what- 
ever they may have been, were things too well known to 
Moses to need description. We shall have occasion 
hereafter to speak of the use made of the Urim and 
Thummim ; but there is really nothing which can be 
said in the way of description, more than to record vari- 
ous conjectures. We pass, therefore, to the only remain- 
ing official garment, the mitre. This probably differed 
in shape from the bonnets of the subordinate priests. 
We have but scanty means, however, of ascertaining 
what the specific differences were. The etymology of 
their Hebrew names 1 seems to favor the opinion, that, in 
the case of the mitre, the long web of cloth was wrapped 
upon itself more times, so as to produce a turban of 
greater circumference, but less altitude, than the bonnet 
of a subordinate, which was built up from the head in 
the shape of a helmet. The mitre was also distinguished 
from the bonnet by a plate of pure gold, called a crown, 
attached to its front, and extending from ear to ear, on 
which was inscribed Holiness to Jehovah. This crown 
was attached by means of a blue ribbon passed through 
an aperture at the middle of the crown till the ribbon 
displayed two ends of equal length, which were brought 

1 riSJVn from {to wrap around), and TiySXO, from $2} {to be high, 

especially with a round form). From the cognate verb having exactly the 
same meaning, yXO {a helmet) is derived. 



THE ATTENDANTS OF THE TABERNACLE 63 

over the top of the mitre to the back of the head, tied 
together, brought forward each to an aperture in the end 
of the crown, and, after being passed through this aper- 
ture, were returned to the knot at the back of the head, 
where the ends were made fast. 

Such was the magnificent costume to be worn by the 
high-priest in his ordinary ministrations. But on the 
day of expiation he was habited not in these " garments 
of gold," but in pure white linen, as he entered the holy 
of holies to make expiation, first for his own sins, and 
then for the sins of the people. With this exception, 
the costumes we have described as appertaining to the 
high-priest and his subordinates were always worn by 
them when performing official functions. When they 
were not on duty, their apparel was similar to that of 
other Hebrews. 

The investment of Aaron and his sons with these 
garments was one of the ceremonies with which they 
were consecrated to the priesthood. The candidates 
were conducted to the door of the tabernacle, where, 
having washed their hands and feet, they were publicly 
clothed with these insignia of office. The next cere- 
mony was to anoint Aaron with the holy oil by pouring 
it on his head so that it ran down on his beard, and 
dropped on his garments. 

Finally sacrifices were offered ; first, a bullock as a sin- 
offering ; next, a ram as a whole burnt-offering ; and, 
thirdly, another ram as a consecration offering. With 
the blood of this last sacrifice, the candidates were 
touched on the tip of the right ear, the thumb of the 
right hand, and the great toe of the right foot. Besides, 
some of it mixed with the sacred oil of unction was 
sprinkled on their persons, and on their garments. 



64 HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 

By means of these ceremonies repeated daily for 
seven days, Aaron and his sons were duly consecrated 
to the priesthood, and not only they, but their descend- 
ants as well ; for it does not appear that their posterity 
were set apart with any similar rites, save only that the 
son of the high-priest, when he succeeded to his father's 
office, was invested with its insignia, and anointed with 
the holy oil. 

What, now, was the peculiar duty required of this 
family thus set apart, not only to the service of the tab- 
ernacle, but to higher ministrations than those of the 
common Levites ? They were to watch over the holy 
fire miraculously kindled at first, and keep it ever burn- 
ing; to feed and trim the seven lamps in the holy place ; 
to change the loaves of show-bread ; to offer morning and 
evening the sacrifices on the altar of burnt-offering, and 
the incense on the golden altar in the holy place. These 
were constant and regular duties ; but, in addition, they 
must be ready to officiate in the occasional services re- 
quired by the law when individual worshippers came to 
present their offerings. What these were, we need not 
now inquire, as it will be necessary to enumerate them 
in the next chapter. 

But not all who were descended from Aaron could 
perform these sacerdotal duties. A young man of 
unquestionable genealogy was entitled to share in the 
perquisites of the priesthood, but could not approach the 
altar if he had any bodily defect or blemish. 1 

1 In later times every youthful candidate for the priesthood appeared before 
the Sanhedrim for a formal examination, first of his genealogy, and then of his 
physique. Lightfoot says (Temple Service, ch. vi.), - The manner of their 
instalment and admission to the service was this : The great Sanhedrim sat daily in 
the room Gazith, to judge concerning the priests that came to age, to enter into 



THE ATTENDANTS OF THE TABERNACLE. 65 



It appears, from the difference between the prescribed 
duty of the priests and of the Levites, that the attend- 
ants of the tabernacle were divided into two classes, or 
castes ; one being like sons in the house, and the other 
like servants. The priests were partakers with the altar, 
consuming parts of the same offering, and were per- 
mitted to enter not merely the court, but the private 
apartments of the Holy One to whom the habitation 
belonged; while the Levites performed menial service, 
but had no access to the presence-chamber of the king 
whom they served. 

the service, to see whether they were of the priest's line rightly descended, or no ; 
and, if they proved so, then to see whether they were without blemish ; if they 
proved not truly and completely priests born, they were clothed in black, and veiled 
in black, and so turned away, and no more to do with them ; but if he proved of 
the priest's line rightly begotten, and there were any blemish in him of the one 
hundred and forty blemishes (for so many they number), then he was set to the 
worming of the wood, of which we have spoken in the description of the court of 
the women. But if he proved rightly descended, and without any blemish, then 
was he clothed in white, and enrolled among the rest of the priests, and he went in, 
and served at the altar as the others did ; and to these customs that speech alludeth 
in Rev. iii. 5 : ' He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment ; 
and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life.' " 
6* 



CHAPTER V. 



THE SACRIFICES OF THE TABERNACLE. 

The tabernacle having been erected in the midst of a 
people separated from the rest of mankind to be the 
recipients and mediators of a revelation which Jehovah 
would make of himself to the world, a constant worship 
was maintained by the priests in the name of the holy 
nation. 

But, before we proceed to inspect the ritual of the 
sanctuary as it was daily celebrated, it may be advisable 
to acquaint ourselves with its different species of sacri- 
fices ; for, with no knowledge of the difference between 
a sin-offering and a burnt-offering, one could poorly 
comprehend what he saw, even if standing in full view 
of the smoking altar. It would be premature, however, 
to inquire at present either concerning the general signifi- 
cance of sacrifices, or the special import of the different 
kinds ; so that our present task is to distinguish one vari- 
ety from another by their outward and visible differences, 
taking into view their disparity of meaning only so far 
as it may instantly appear. 

We find enumerated among the oblations offered on 
the great altar in the court of the tabernacle,— 

SIN-OFFERINGS, MEAT-OFFERINGS, 

TRESPASS-OFFERINGS, DRINK-OFFERINGS, 

BURNT-OFFERINGS, PEACE-OFFERINGS. 
66 



THE SACRIFICES OF THE TABERNACLE. 



Of sin-offerings, the Scriptures make no mention as 
existing before the time of Moses. Other kinds of sac- 
rifice he found in existence ; but this species seems to 
have been instituted simultaneously with the law of Sinai, 
as a relief for consciences burdened with sin in conse- 
quence of the multiplied requirements and prohibitions 
of that law. For one who wilfully and presumptuously 
transgressed, no sacrifice was appointed : he must be 
punished without the possibility of pardon. 1 But, if any 
one had violated any precept through inadvertence, he 
might bring a sin-offering ; and when it had been slain, 
and its blood sprinkled on certain parts of the tabernacle 
prescribed by the law, his sin was expiated, and he was 
forgiven. Expiation, an element in the idea of all sacri- 
fice, was the special and leading element in this particu- 
lar species. 

The ceremonial of a sin-offering was as follows : The 
victim must be an animal not younger than eight days, 
nor older than one year; a female kid or lamb for a 
private person, a male kid for a ruler, and a bullock for 
a priest. In all cases it must be without defect. The 
sacrificer laid his hand on the head of the victim, making 
oral confession of sin, and praying that this sacrifice 
might be his expiation. The animal was then slain ; and, 
if the offerer was either a private person or a ruler, some 
of the blood was sprinkled on the horns of the sacrificial 
altar, and the remainder poured out at its base. But, if 
the sacrifice was offered in behalf of a sinning priest, the 
blood was sprinkled, not on the horns of the great altar 
in the court, but first on the horns of the altar of incense 
in the holy place, then seven times within the same apart- 

i Heb. x. 26-28. 



68 HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 

ment toward the mercy-seat, which stood behind the veil, 
and afterward what remained was poured out at the base 
of the great altar. 

The fat, as the choicest part of the flesh, having been 
consumed on the altar, the remainder of the victim, if 
the offering had been brought by a private person or 
a ruler, was eaten by the priests within the court of the 
tabernacle, their families not being allowed to share with 
them. In the case of a sin-offering for a priest or for 
the whole congregation, the flesh, after the fat had been 
burned on the altar, was carried outside of the camp and 
burned to ashes in an undefiled place. 

The sin-offerings prescribed for the annual day of 
expiation were a bullock for the high-priest, and- a goat for 
the people ; and in both cases the ritual differed from 
those described above in the application of the blood, 
which was first sprinkled on the mercy-seat within the 
holy of holies, afterward within the holy place, and thirdly 
on the altar in the court. They differed also from the 
offerings prescribed for individual laymen, as they resem- 
bled those for individual priests, in the mode in which 
the flesh of the victims was disposed of ; for, after the fat 
had been offered on the altar, the remainder, both of the 
bullock and the goat, was carried out of the camp, and 
burned in an undefiled place. 

The difference both in the application of the blood 
and in the disposal of the flesh cannot fail to awaken, in 
the attentive observer, the suspicion that some variation 
in the import of the transaction was intended by it. It 
does not consist, however, with our plan, to scrutinize at 
present the significance either of the sin-offering itself, 
or of these variations in it as presented for different 



THE SACRIFICES OF THE TABERNACLE. 69 



classes of sinners. At this stage of our investigation 
we have to do only with the facts. 

The trespass-offering was almost, but not exactly, the 
same in principle as the sin-offering. The violations of 
theocratic law, for which trespass-offerings in distinc- 
tion from sin-offerings must be presented, were such as 
infringed upon the rights of property. Accordingly, 
where reparation was possible, it must accompany the 
presentation of the sacrifice. For example : If one had 
trespassed in holy things by inadvertently retaining 
something which was due to Jehovah, he might bring 
a trespass - offering accompanied with an equivalent 
of what had been withheld, increased by the addition of 
one-fifth, under the assurance that the priest should 
make an atonement for him, and it should be forgiven 
him. 1 In like manner, if one had robbed his brother by 
any fraud or suppression of the truth, in a business trans- 
action, he might bring a trespass-offering accompanied 
with restoration of the principal with one -fifth part 
added thereto, which he must " give unto him to whom 
it appertaineth in the day of his trespass-offering." He 
was then authorized to. believe that the sin he had com- 
mitted against Jehovah was pardoned. 2 A Nazarite who, 
before the expiration of his vow, accidentally became 
defiled, must bring a trespass-offering, and begin anew to 
count the days of his separation, which, by his own gift, 
belonged to God. In this last case, there is compensa- 
tion, but without the addition of a fifth part. 3 

1 Lev. v. 15-19. 

2 Lev. vi. 1-6. 

3 There are five specifications in the books of Moses requiring the presenta- 
tion of the trespass-offering, three of which have been mentioned in the text. 



ft 



70 HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 

The animal brought for a trespass-offering was always 
a ram ; no difference being made, as in the sin-offering, 
between a private person, a ruler, and a priest. A 
gradation was marked, however, in the importance of 
the trespass, by the provision, in certain cases, that the 
animal should be a young ram, a lamb of the first year, 1 
while in other cases the age was not prescribed, but the 
priest was empowered to decide how valuable an offering 
must be brought. 2 The ceremonial of the sacrifice was 
the same as of the sin-offering ; with the exception that 
the blood was sprinkled on two diagonally opposite 
corners of the altar, so as to touch all its four sides, and 
never as in any of the three grades of sin-offering. 

The burnt-offering, or holocaust, was an institution 
existent before the law of Sinai, by which it was adopted 
as a feature of the tabernacle service. The name itself 
is applied to the offering of animals upon the altar by 
Noah when he came out of the ark ; and the sacrifice of 
Abel, though mentioned under a more generic appella- 
tion, seems to have been coincident in its import with 
that of a burnt-offering under the law of Moses. 

As expiation was the chief element in the idea of a sin- 
offering, so was self-dedication in the idea of a holocaust. 
But, as the choicest part of a sin-offering was given to 

The other two do not illustrate the peculiarity of this kind of sacrifice, and do not, at 
first view, even seem consistent with what we have alleged to be its peculiar princi- 
ple. A critical study of them, however, will, it is believed, prove that they come 
under the class of sins which trespass upon rights of property. The subject is 
well treated in the article, " Opfercultus," by Oehler, in Herzog's Real-Encyklo- 
padie. 

1 Lev. xiv. 12) Num. vi. 12. 

2 Lev. v. 15-18 ; Ibidvi. 6. 



THE SACRIFICES OF THE TABERNACLE. 71 

the fire to express the self-consecration of the pardoned 
sinner, so the burnt-offering was not representative of 
dedication to the exclusion of atonement ; for some 
of the blood of the victim was sprinkled for expiation. 

Provision was made by the law for both stated and 
occasional burnt-offerings, the latter being brought by 
some individual " of his own voluntary will." For the 
former class, the law of course prescribed what animals 
must be offered, and for the latter class permitted the 
offerer to bring a bullock, a lamb, or a kid ; but it must 
be of the male sex, and unblemished. The offerer placed 
his hand on the head of the victim, which he then slew 
with his own hand. The priest having sprinkled its 
blood, cut up the body and placed it on the altar, reserv- 
ing only the skin as his perquisite. One might even 
bring a dove or a pigeon as a freewill holocaust, 1 nor is 
there any intimation in the law that this was a provision 
for the poor ; though, from the nature of the case, those 
who were not poor would, in making a freewill oblation, 
bring a more costly sacrifice. 

Meat-offerings are next to be considered. We must 
at the beginning disinthrall ourselves from the mistake 
that meat is the synonyme of flesh ; for the material of 
sacrifices of this class was from the vegetable kingdom 
exclusively. As the word meat is now used, food-offer- 
ing would better represent what the English version 
terms a meat-offering. It was prepared from wheat, and 
might be presented in different forms. The statute 
mentions first, fine flour ; secondly, cakes of four kinds ; 
and thirdly, wheat in the grain, which had been roasted 

1 Lev. i. 14. 



72 



HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 



in the green ears, and rubbed out with the hands. In all 
this variety the food was, in one mode or another, short- 
ened with olive-oil, and seasoned with salt. In whatever 
form the food-offering was brought, it must be accom- 
panied with frankincense. A small portion of the food, 
and all the frankincense, was to be burned on the altar : 
the remaining food belonged to the priests. 1 

The idea involved is evidently a consecration to God 
of the fruits of the earth, of which the food-offering was 
a representative part. This species of oblation was 
ordinarily an appendage to a holocaust. 

Drink-offerings were of wine. When one was pre- 
sented, it was an accompaniment of a food-offering ; and 
the two offerings, though two in name, were identical in 
principle, since the wine, as a product of the earth, had 
the same meaning as the flour. 

Peace-offerings were sacrifices of animals by persons 
who, having obtained the forgiveness of sins, and dedi- 
cated themselves to Jehovah, were at peace with him. 
Accordingly, while friendship with God was the principal 
idea represented, expiation and dedication were com- 
bined with it ; for the blood of the victim was sprinkled 
on the altar, and portions of the flesh were burned in the 
fire. They were of three species ; namely, thank-offer- 
ings, votive offerings, and freewill offerings. In the 
first species, the sacrificer expressed gratitude for favors 
conferred by the spontaneous grace of God ; in the 
second, he fulfilled a promise previously made to offer 
such a. sacrifice if he received a certain favor ; in the 



l Lev. ii. 1-3. 



THE SACRIFICES OF THE TABERNACLE. 73 



third, he supplicated a favor, as had been done anticipa- 
tively in the second, but chose to make his sacrifice 
unconditionally and immediately, rather than to vow. 

The offerer might select his peace-offerings from his 
herd or his flock ; and they might be either male or 
female at his pleasure. When he had placed his hand 
on the head of the victim, he slew it; and the priest 
sprinkled its blood on the four sides of the altar as in 
trespass-offerings and burnt-offerings. The flesh being 
then cut into parts, the breast was waved with a horizon- 
tal motion in token of its consecration, and became the 
property of the priests in common, which they might 
carry away from the sanctuary to eat at home with their 
families ; and the right hind-leg, 1 being heaved with a 
vertical motion, became the perquisite of the individual 
priest who officiated. The remainder of the flesh be- 
longed to the worshipper, who was at liberty to carry it 
away from the sanctuary, and place it on a festal board 
for the entertainment of his friends. Such a feast ac- 
quired, however, from this flesh which had been offered 
in sacrifice, an element of sacredness and worship ; so 
that to eat of it was to partake at the table of Jehovah. 2 

1 The English version, the Septuagint, the Vulgate, and Luther's translation, 
have shoulder ; but there is no satisfactory evidence that the Hebrew word was 
applied to the fore-leg. It is derived from a verb signifying to run, and is used 
to denote the human thigh. Gesenius and Ewald agree that when used to desig- 
nate the part of a peace-offering which was heaved, it signified a thigh or hind-leg. 
The breast and the hind-legs being the best of the flesh, the portion of the priests 
was apparently for that reason taken from those parts. 

2 This idea that a sacrificial feast implied that the guests joined in the worship 
of the Deity to whom the sacrifice was offered, naturally raised the question 
whether it was lawful to eat flesh which had been offered in sacrifice to an idol. 
The question is discussed in 1 Cor. viii. 1 et seq. 

It would seem from 1 Cor. x. 16-18, that the writer regarded the Lord's Sup- 
per as a feast at which the communicants partake of the great archetypal sacrifice 
in like manner as, under the Mosaic dispensation, they who ate the flesh of a peace- 
offering were partakers of the altar. 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE LUSTRATIONS OF THE TABERNACLE. 

As the tribe of Levi were separated from their breth- 
ren, to be attendants of the tabernacle, so the whole 
Hebrew people were set apart from the rest of mankind, 
as " a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." 1 Indeed, 
the consecration of the whole community preceded both 
the appointment of the tribe of Levi to the service of the 
sanctuary, and the calling of Aaron to the priesthood, 
as a brief history of the transaction will evince. 

Immediately after the fugitives from Egypt had arrived 
at Sinai, and before they had received any intimation 
that they were to build a sanctuary, Jehovah proposed 
that they should enter into a covenant with him, the 
conditions of which were at that time only summarily 
mentioned. 2 When they had expressed their willingness 
to do so, the stipulations of the covenant were recited 
at length, and accepted ; the people answering with one 
voice, " All the words which Jehovah hath said will we 
do." 3 Moses then committed to writing the require- 
ments and promises of God, which had been before orally 
communicated, and read them in the audience of the 
people assembled for a formal and solemn ratification of 
the mutual engagement. The audible response of the 
Hebrews, accepting the covenant as it had been read, and 
promising fidelity to its obligations, was followed by a 

l Exod. xix. 6. 2 Exod. xix. 4-6. 3 Exod. xxiv. 3. 

74 



THE LUSTRATIONS OF THE TABERNACLE. 75 

sacramental ceremony, representing the fellowship of the 
two parties, and their union in this transaction. Moses, 
having sprinkled on the altar one-half of the blood of 
the sacrifices offered in connection with this solemnity, 
sprinkled the other half on the people, to signify their 
participation with the altar and the God whom it repre- 
sented. They were thus consecrated, or sealed, as a 
holy nation, distinguished from other nations by being 
in covenant with God. " Moses took the blood, and 
sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of 
the covenant, which Jehovah hath made with you con- 
cerning all these words." 1 

The Hebrews, having thus been brought into covenant 
with Jehovah, were required to build a habitation for 
him, in which he might dwell among them. When it 
had been erected, he came in the pillar of cloud, and took 
visible possession of it as his future dwelling-place. 

Obviously his presence in their encampment obliged 
them to remove from it whatever he might stigmatize 
as offensive. Every thing must be arranged and con- 
ducted in deference to the wishes of one who had right- 
ful authority, and was clothed with power to maintain it. 
As he was holy, they must be holy, or awaken his dis- 
pleasure. As sensuality, injustice, or idolatry, was to 
him an abomination, they must be sober, righteous, and 
monotheistic. Even the defects of those who, so far 
from surrendering themselves to the dominion of sin, 
were endeavoring to keep his commandments, needed to 
be covered from the eye which can look with satisfaction 
only on what is absolutely without blemish. 

By their consecration as the people of the covenant, 
the Hebrews were formally holy, and qualified to main- 

1 Exod. xxiv. 8. 



76 HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 

tain the worship of the tabernacle ; but they must also 
be holy in spirit and in truth, obeying all the command- 
ments of Jehovah. Such an obligation to universal and 
constant obedience would, of course, frequently awaken 
the consciousness of sin ; and therefore provision was 
made for assuring those who endeavored to do right, but 
were accused by conscience of some specific neglect or 
violation of law, that they were forgiven, and still re- 
garded as members of the holy nation. When the law 
of Sinai, with its greater extent and particularity of 
requirement, superseded the more general legislation of 
former ages, it established a sacrifice especially signifi- 
cant of forgiveness ; that, while the people of the cove- 
nant were educated to greater strictness of life, they 
might have corresponding encouragement in the conflict 
with evil. Every transgression of law which was not 
wilful and presumptuous might be purged away by means 
of a sin-offering ; and such lustration assured the person 
who brought the sacrifice that he retained his standing 
in the holy nation, and was still counted among the peo- 
ple of God. 

When an individual became conscious that he had 
violated any law of Jehovah, he must bring a sin-offering 
to the altar, that the priest, having made an expiation 
for him, might pronounce him absolved from his guilt. 
There was provision that, whenever it had become 
known that the nation had transgressed the law, similar 
rites of lustration should be performed in behalf of 
the community, to signify that the sin was cancelled. 
Besides these ceremonies of purification provided for 
sins of which the people had become aware, there were 
periodical lustrations appointed in recognition of possible 



THE LUSTRATIONS OF THE TABERNACLE. 77 



offences that might have vanished from the memory, and 
even escaped notice at the time of commission. On the 
first day of each month, a sacrifice for sin was presented 
in the name of the whole people ; and on the first day of 
the seventh month it was duplicated. The tenth of the 
same month was always observed as a day of atonement, 
when with great solemnity the priests and the people 
were lustrated anew. The ritual of the day of pente- 
cost, and of the whole week of the festival of taber- 
nacles, demanded also sacrifices for sin in the name of 
the community. 

But the presence of their God in the midst of their 
encampment required of the Hebrews care not merely to 
avoid immorality, but to exhibit such outward tokens of 
reverence as were in vogue, and in accordance with the 
prevalent style of civilization. Oriental usage prescribed 
to inferiors and dependents, in addition to a very demon- 
strative exhibition of reverence toward those that were 
in power, by means of attitudes and gestures, a scrupu- 
lous attention to personal cleanliness when admitted to 
their presence. Such a requirement may have origi- 
nated in the necessities of the climate ; neglect of clean- 
liness being sooner evident, and more offensive, than 
in colder countries. Whatever its origin, such a law of 
etiquette was, in the time of Moses, fixed in the civiliza- 
tion not only of the people among whom he had been 
educated, but of other nations. The non-observance of it 
by inferiors would have been esteemed an insult to those 
entitled to deference ; and the non-enforcement of it by 
those in authority would have subverted the structure of 
society. 7* 



?8 



HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 



The purification of the person, as a preliminary to ad- 
mission into the presence of royalty, being enjoined, the 
regulation was easily extended so as to include the re- 
moval of conventional as well as real uncleanness ; con- 
tact with certain things proscribed as offensive being 
regarded as a pollution to be in all cases ceremonially 
removed, even when there was no real defilement. 

Bearing in mind these laws of Oriental etiquette, we 
shall not think it strange that the people, in the midst of 
whose encampment Jehovah dwelt, must carefully avoid 
every defilement of the person, real or conventional. In 
view of their constant nearness to his habitation, their 
representative participation in its services, and their 
occasional presentation of themselves at the entrance or 
even within the court, we might expect to find that rules 
had been prescribed for them in regard to ceremonial 
defilement and ceremonial purification. Such regula- 
tions were not omitted from the code of Sinai. The 
demonstrations of reverence demanded by monarchs, and 
accorded by their subjects, were not to be withholden 
by the Hebrews from the invisible Being who dwelt 
among them as their King and their God. 

A system of conventional cleanness and defilement 
was established, which obliged every individual to bear 
constantly in mind the presence of Jehovah, under pen- 
alty of temporary excision from the privilege of being 
represented in the worship of the sanctuary, of eating 
the flesh of peace-offerings sanctified through presenta- 
tion at the altar, of coming to join in the worship at the 
door of the court, and of bringing a sacrifice within the 
sacred enclosure. Whoever, forgetting the presence of 
Jehovah, and the ceremonial purity due to his presence, 



THE LUSTRATIONS OF THE TABERNACLE. 79 



should merely touch any thing offensive, became denied, 
and suffered such temporary excision. He could not even 
representatively approach the Holy One of Israel. In 
some cases of exceeding offensiveness, the unclean person 
was not allowed within the bounds of the encampment. 

Ritual defilement did not, however, necessarily imply 
blame. Sometimes it was involuntary ; as, for example, 
when a person was rendered unclean by disease. A 
leper was unclean, even if not responsible for his lep- 
rosy; he must live apart, and give notice, when ap- 
proached, of his condition, by crying, "Unclean, un- 
clean ! " Sometimes it was incurred in the discharge of 
duty ; as, for instance, in the burial of the dead, and in 
the performance of certain services incidental to the 
fulfilment of the law, such as the burning of the heifer 
to prepare water of separation, 1 the sprinkling of the 
water of separation on those who were defiled by contact 
with the dead, 2 the leading away of the scape-goat on the 
day of atonement, 3 and the burning of the two sin-offer- 
ings on the same anniversary. 4 As there could be no 
blame in the performance of these requirements of the 
ritual, and none, in some cases, at least, of disease, it fol- 
lows that ritual defilement did not directly imply fault. 
It was simply a disqualification for entering the habita- 
tion of God. 

But though ritual uncleanness was different from sin, 
and might be contracted without any immediate fault, 
the mere lapse of time was no more effectual to remove 
it than to take away guilt. Rites of lustration were as 
necessary to show that an unclean person was cleansed 
from his defilement, and entitled to his former privileges, 

1 Num. xix. 7, 8. 2 Num. xix. 21. 3 Lev. xvi. 26. 4 Lev. xvi. 28. 



So HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 

as they were to set forth that a transgressor of law was 
forgiven, and retained in favor. The ceremonies differed 
in the two representations so as to correspond with the 
peculiarities of each case; but sin and uncleanness 
equally required lustration. 

Ritual defilement was not, in all instances, of equal du- 
ration. In many cases it could be terminated, the same 
day in which it was acquired, by washing either the person 
or the clothes, or by washing both the person and the 
clothes. In some kinds of uncleanness, the interdict con- 
tinued for an indefinite period, till, the reason for it having 
ceased, the ban itself was removed with solemnities 
appointed for that particular species of defilement. For 
example, one who had been afflicted with leprosy might, 
when restored to health, be also restored to all the privi- 
leges of the theocracy by the prescribed rites of a week 
of purification, ending with a sin-offering and a holocaust. 
It is a natural inference, that the defilement soonest and 
with least difficulty eliminated was esteemed less offen- 
sive than one which could be removed only after a longer 
exclusion, and with more solemn rites of lustration. 

Defilement by excretion from the organs of reproduc- 
tion was of the lowest grade, requiring for its removal in 
ordinary cases simply the application of water. But, if 
occasioned by disease, sacrifices of expiation and dedica- 
tion must be offered. The uncleanness of a woman in 
childbirth extended through forty days if her child was 
a son, and through a period twice as long if she had given 
birth to a daughter ; her purification commencing, in the 
first case, with the circumcision of the boy, and continu- 
ing sixty-six days. When the days of her purification 
were accomplished, she might be restored to the privi- 



THE LUSTRATIONS OF THE TABERNACLE. 81 

leges of the sanctuary by presenting a dove as a sin- 
offering, and a lamb as a burnt-offering. If poor, she 
might present a second dove instead of a lamb, as did 
the Virgin Mary at the birth of our Lord. 

Defilement by contact with the carcass of an animal 
which had died otherwise than by the hand of man, 
required for its removal that both the person and the 
clothes should be washed. "The uncleanness commu- 
nicated by a huma7i corpse, whether after a violent or a 
natural death, was much more intense in its character. 
Every tent or house in which there was a corpse, as well 
as all the people in it, and all the vessels that were 
standing about, were rendered unclean for seven days, 
during which time the people themselves were to remain 
outside the camp. Contact with a corpse found in the 
open country denied for the same period ; also contact 
with graves, and the ashes of the dead. This un- 
cleanness also passed from the persons affected by it 
to every thing they touched ; but in this case it only 
lasted till the evening. The uncleanness which pro- 
ceeded directly from the corpse itself to persons and 
things, could only be removed by sprinkling-water 
(water of separation) prepared expressly for the pur- 
pose. And, in the case of persons, a subsequent bathing 
of the body, and washing of the clothes, were also 
required. To obtain this sprinkling-water, a spotless red 
heifer that had never borne a yoke was slain as a sin- 
offering outside the camp. The son or presumptive 
successor to the high-priest officiated on the occasion, 
and sprinkled some of the blood seven times towards 
the sanctuary. The cow was then burnt along with the 
skin, the flesh, the bones, the blood, and the dung ; and 
7 



82 



HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 



cedar-wood, coccus-wool, and hyssop, were also thrown 
into the fire. All the persons who officiated at this 
ceremony became unclean till the evening, and were 
required to wash their bodies and their clothes. When- 
ever a death occurred, a clean man put some of these 
ashes into a vessel, poured fresh water upon them, 
dipped a bundle of hyssop into the water, and sprinkled 
the persons or things to be cleansed on the third day, 
and again on the seventh. He also became unclean in 
consequence, and had to wash himself and his clothes." 1 
The uncleanness of leprosy excluded not only from 
the sanctuary, but from the camp ; and lustration from 
it, as it involved a twofold restoration, was performed in 
two stages. It being ascertained that the disease was 
healed, the unclean person was first so far relieved from 
his disabilities that he might enter the camp. This was 
done with the following rites, namely: the officiating 
priest took two birds, "alive and clean,", and, having 
killed one of them over a vessel containing living water, 
dipped the other bird along with cedar-wood, coccus- 
wool, and hyssop, in the mixture of blood and water, 
sprinkled the unclean person seven times with the same 
mixture, and set at liberty the bird he had dipped. The 
leper then washed his clothes, shaved all the hair from 
his body, bathed himself, and, having done so, was at 
liberty to go into the camp, but not into the court of the 
tabernacle. A week later he was restored to the privi- 
leges of the sanctuary by a second act in the ceremo- 
nies of lustration, commencing, as the first act had 
ended, with shaving off all his hair, washing his clothes, 

i Kurtz : Sacrificial Worship of the Old Testament. Edinburgh, 1863. P. 
422, et seq. 



THE LUSTRATIONS OF THE TABERNACLE. 83 

and bathing his person. This took place on the seventh 
day of the ceremonial. On the eighth day, or just one 
week after the lustration was commenced, it was com- 
pleted with three sacrifices ; a male lamb for a trespass- 
offering, a female lamb for a sin-offering, and a male 
lamb for a burnt-offering, together with a food-offering 
of flour and oil. If the leper was poor, two doves might 
be accepted in place of the two lambs for the sin-offer- 
ing and the burnt-offering; but the trespass-offering 
was so important to the ceremony that no abatement of 
that part might be allowed. The ceremonial was as fol- 
lows, namely : the priest waved the lamb of the trespass- 
offering together with the oil of the food-offering, 
slaughtered the lamb, and smeared some of its blood on 
the tip of the right ear, the thumb of the right hand, and 
the great toe of the right foot, of the leper. He then 
poured some of the oil into the palm of his own left hand, 
dipped his finger, and sprinkled seven times toward the 
sanctuary ; afterward he applied the remainder of the oil 
to the body of him who was to be restored, smearing first 
the parts which had been smeared with blood, and then 
pouring on the head. The ceremonial concluded with 
the presentation of the sin-offering and the burnt-offer- 
ing in the usual manner. 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE CALENDAR OF THE TABERNACLE. 

Specifications were communicated to Moses not 
only for building the tabernacle, but for instituting with- 
in it ceremonies of divine service, both regular and 
occasional. Our studies in regard to its construction, its 
equipment, its erection, its attendants, its lustrations, 
and its sacrifices, have been necessary preliminaries to 
an examination of its calendar of worship. 

Of the daily service as conducted in the temple in 
later years, Lightfoot has compiled out of the Jewish 
traditions a circumstantial description. From a com- 
parison of these traditions concerning the service in the 
temple at Jerusalem, with the accounts of it contained m 
the inspired Scriptures, we may learn how to supply the 
omissions of the Pentateuch concerning the details of 
the daily service of the sanctuary in the wilderness. 
For the ritual of worship was substantially the same m 
the tabernacle as in the edifice of stone which succeeded 
it, — substantially the same ; for no doubt the difference 
in the edifices required some change in the details, and 
the ritual was not so unalterably fixed that no additions 
could be made to the service as the nation increased m 
numbers, and advanced in literary and esthetic culture. 
.84 



THE CALENDAR OF THE TABERNACLE. 85 

When King David brought the ark, which had been a 
long time separated from the tabernacle, into Jerusalem, 
he established in connection with it a daily service of 
praise, in which psalms were chanted with accompani- 
ments of cymbals, harps, and psalteries in the hands of 
Levites skilled in music, in addition to the silver trum- 
pets blown by priests. During the remainder of his reign, 
as well as for a short period after the accession of Solo- 
mon, this service of song and instruments before the 
tent which contained the ark was continued; while the 
tabernacle, which had been brought from Sinai, was yet 
standing in another place, with its sacrificial altar, on 
which alone the appointed daily sacrifices could be pre- 
sented. Accordingly the worship of the nation was for 
the time divided, and remained so till, the temple being 
completed, the services which had been performed in the 
Sinaitic tabernacle at Gibeon, and the service of praise 
which had been established in Jerusalem, were united. 

Henceforth music was an important part of the morn- 
ing and evening worship, whereas at first there had been 
music only on the first day of the several months, and 
some other eminent days ; when two silver trumpets were 
blown by priests at the time of the morning and evening 
sacrifices. But this consecration of poetry and music, 
highly appropriate as it was when the nation had made 
so great progress in these arts, and the monarch himself 
was a poet and a musician, was an addition to, rather 
than an alteration of, the ritual of former years ; which 
remained hereafter, as it had continued hitherto, sub- 
stantially the same as when established at Sinai. 

In our survey of the services of the tabernacle as 

they were performed from day to day throughout the 
8 



S6 



HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 



year, it will be in order to speak only of those which 
being established at Sinai were essential and unalterable 
features of the institution, leaving out of view such as 
were afterward appended. 

The daily service was performed in the following 
order. Every thing having been made ready, as far as 
possible, the preceding evening, the priests who were to 
officiate were called at a very early hour by the Levites 
on duty as watchmen. The priests, having washed their 
hands and feet at the laver in the court, proceeded to 
prepare the sacrificial altar, removing the ashes, piling 
on fresh fuel, and carefully replacing any remnants of 
the evening sacrifice not yet consumed. This prepara- 
tion of the altar ordinarily began at the dawn of day, 
but on occasions of uncommon solemnity at a still 
earlier hour. A lamb which had been previously in- 
spected, and pronounced free from blemish, was then 
broup-ht to the north side of the altar, and slain. The 

o 

blood having been received into a dish sacred to that 
use, some of it was thrown upon two diagonally opposite 
corners of the altar in such a manner that all the sides 
of the altar were sprinkled with it, and the remainder 
was poured out upon the ground at the base of the altar. 
The body was then flayed, divided into pieces, and 
sprinkled with salt. Simultaneously with these pro- 
ceedings, another priest prepared the altar of incense, 
and the lamps, in the holy place; removing the ashes 
from the former, and replenishing the latter with wicks 
and oil. The next thing in order was the burning of 
incense, which in later times, at least, was done upon 
a signal given by the presiding priest on the outside; 



THE CALENDAR OF THE TABERNACLE. 87 

and, when the signal was given, at the same moment 
ascended the cloud of incense from the golden altar 
within, and the prayers of those waiting without. After 
an interval, the priest who had officiated at the altar of 
incense came out of the tabernacle, and, lifting his hands, 
pronounced upon the people the prescribed form of 
benediction: "The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: the 
Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious 
unto thee : the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, 
and give thee peace." 1 Then the parts of the lamb 
which had been slain were laid upon the fire ; the pre- 
scribed accompaniment of flour mingled with oil called 
the meat-offering was brought; a handful of it was 
thrown upon the fire (the remainder being a perquisite 
of the priests); and the drink-offering of wine was 
poured out at the base of the altar. The presentation 
of the drink-offering closed the service as originally 
instituted ; but, in the ritual of the temple, it was the 
signal for the musicians to commence chanting the 
psalm appointed for the day. 

The service at evening was nearly a repetition of that 
in the morning ; and the purposes of our inquiry do not 
oblige us to specify the few and unimportant particulars 
in which they differed. 

The seventh day of the week, or the sabbath, was 
signalized by the offering of two lambs instead of one, 
both in the morning and in the evening, with a corre- 
sponding increase in the quantity of the accompanying 
meat-offerings and drink-offerings. The show-bread on 
the table in the holy place was also renewed. 

1 Num. vi. 24-26. 



88 



HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 



The change of the moon (or, as the Hebrew months 
coincided with the period of the moon's revolution 
around the earth, the first day of every month) was 
celebrated with a burnt-offering of seven lambs, one 
ram, and two bullocks, in addition to the daily sacrifice ; 
the accompanying meat-offering and drink-offering 
being proportionately augmented, and the ceremony 
being enlivened by the sound of trumpets even in the 
early times before music was added to the daily sacrifice. 
The day was still further solemnized by the offering of a 
young goat as a sacrifice for sin. 

The month in which the flight from Egypt took place 
was thenceforth reckoned as the first month of the 
year ; and, as the fugitives commenced their march in 
the night of the full-moon, the paschal supper which 
commemorated their departure was celebrated in the 
middle of that month. 

The paschal lamb must be slain in the evening fol- 
lowing the fourteenth day. At the institution of the 
festival in Egypt, it was required that the lamb should be 
selected on the tenth of the month, and kept in re- 
serve for its holy destination four days ; but the statutes 
for the perpetual observance of the passover make no 
provision for the selection of the animal four days in 
advance, and there is no evidence that such was the cus- 
tom in Canaan. Like all animals intended for sacrifice, 
it must be without blemish. If more convenient, a kid 
might be used instead of a lamb. The animal must be 
roasted whole, and eaten with bitter vegetables and 
unleavened bread. If families were too small to consume 
each a lamb, two or more united in the supper. If any 



THE CALENDAR OF THE TABERNACLE. 



of the flesh was not eaten at the supper, it must be 
immediately burned. The celebrants were to eat hastily, 
and to come to the table equipped for travel, being girt, 
shod, and furnished with staves. 

During the seven days commencing with the evening 
of the paschal supper, namely, from the end of the four- 
teenth to the end of the twenty-first day of the month, 
no leavened bread might be eaten, or even kept in the 
house ; and, on account of this prohibition, the week was 
sometimes called " the days of unleavened bread." The 
first and seventh of these were celebrated by abstinence 
from labor, and a holy convocation, being two of the 
seven such days which occurred during the year in 
addition to the weekly sabbaths. On the first of these 
paschal sabbaths, all male Hebrews were required to pre- 
sent themselves before the tabernacle, and join in the 
worship. It was expected also that they would bring 
voluntary sacrifice of thanksgiving to be slain as peace- 
offerings, and then remanded to the offerer, that with 
them he might spread a festal table for himself and his 
friends. 

The sixteenth of the month, or the day immedi- 
ately subsequent to the first of these holy convocations, 
was the appointed time for the presentation to Jehovah 
of the first cereal fruits, and is worthy of particular 
notice as the starting-point from which to count fifty days 
to the festival of harvest, or pentecost as it was called 
from the number of days intervening. At the time of 
the paschal festival, the barley was so far advanced 
toward maturity, that some of the earliest spikes could 
be gathered, and carried to the tabernacle as an offering ; 
and at pentecost the grain of every kind had been har- 
8* 



go HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 

vested. The people were required not to eat bread, or 
parched grain, or green ears, till this offering of the first 
fruits had been rendered. The direction was that it 
should be offered on the morrow after the first holy 
convocation of the paschal week ; for such, undoubtedly, 
is the application of the word " sabbath " in the passage 
enjoining the presentation of the sheaf of first-fruits. 1 
This sheaf was not, as some have supposed, the private 
offering of individuals. It was one representative sheaf, 
brought in the name of the whole people, with a lamb 
for a burnt-offering, and formally presented to Jeho- 
vah by the officiating priest. The food-offering which 
accompanied the lamb consisted of twice the usual quan- 
tity of flour ; that is, of two omers instead of one. 

The days of unleavened bread intervening between 
the second and the seventh were marked only by the 
sin-offering and the holocaust prescribed for each day of 
the festival; both of which were of the same descrip- 
tion as on the new-moons. 

Pentecost was the second festival, in the order of time, 
which required the presence of all male Hebrews at the 
tabernacle. It was the festival of weeks, because seven 
weeks had elapsed since the presentation of the sheaf 
on the sixteenth day of the first month. It was called 
pentecost because it was the fiftieth day from the same 
epoch. It was the festival of the first-fruits, because, the 
cereal harvest having now been gathered, two loaves of 
bread made of new wheat were presented to Jehovah by 
waving them toward the sanctuary. It lasted but one 
day, which, like the first and seventh of the paschal week, 

1 Lev. xxiii. 1 1 . 



THE CALENDAR OF THE TABERNACLE. 91 



was a day of holy convocation in which no servile labor 
might be performed. The burnt-offering appointed for 
the day was the same as at the appearance of a new- 
moon, and during the paschal week, as was also the 
sin-offering ; but the presentation of the wave-loaves occa- 
sioned a series of sacrifices in addition to those which 
distinguished the day as a festival without indicating its 
peculiar character. The burnt-offering of the festival, 
consisting of two bullocks, one ram, and seven lambs, was 
additional to " the continual burnt-offering ; " and the holo- 
caust of one bullock, one ram, and seven lambs, which 
accompanied and formed a basis for the waving of the 
loaves, was still additional to the daily sacrifice increased 
by that which belonged to the day as an annual festival. 
The special ceremonies connected with the waving, 
included also a second sin-offering, consisting of one 
goat, and a peace-offering of two lambs, which were 
waved with the loaves. 

On the first day of the seventh month occurred 
another day of holy convocation, known as the festival 
of trumpets ; and as it was a lunar festival distinguishing 
with special observances the seventh or sabbath moon of 
the year because it was the seventh, its occasional sacri- 
fices were additional to those of other new-moons. 
They consisted of one bullock, one ram, and seven 
lambs for a holocaust, and a goat for a sin-offering. 
This was very nearly but not quite a reduplication of the 
sacrifices regularly offered at the change of the moon, 
the difference being that only one bullock was added to 
the two previously required. As this festival was not 
one of the three which required the presence of the 



9 2 



HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 



people at the tabernacle, they remained at their homes ; 
and those who lived nearest to the place which God had 
chosen for his habitation, as they heard the sound of 
trumpets from the sanctuary, transmitted it to those 
more remote, till the land was filled with rejoicing. The 
silver trumpets with which the priests commenced the 
music were also made to emit a longer and louder sound 
than at the commencement of other months. 1 The 
Hebrew tradition that this was the anniversary of the 
creation of the world has no confirmation in their 
inspired Scriptures, and might easily have its origin 
from the sabbatical character imparted to the month by 
the ceremonial with which it commenced. 

Another holy convocation, the fifth of the year, oc- 
curred on the tenth of the same month. It was the day 
of expiation, or atonement, when the sanctuary itself, its 
attendants, and the people in whose name its worship 
was offered, were purified anew. Only the high-priest, 
or, in case of his incapacity through illness or defilement, 
one chosen as his representative, could officiate. 2 Clad 
in his garments of gold, he first performed the usual 
rites of morning worship, including the sacrifice of the 
lamb, the burning of the incense, and the trimming of 
the lamps, and afterward offered the additional sacrifices 
prescribed for this particular morning, consisting of one 

1 The blowing of the trumpets on the seventh new-moon differed from the blow- 
ing on other new-moons, as the signal for a caravan to commence a journey differed 
from the signal for an assembly. — Num. x. 7, compared with the directions for 
blowing on the new-moons. 1 

2 A Jewish tradition says that it was never necessary that a substitute should 
officiate till the time of Herod the Great, when the high-priest, Matthias, being 
incapacitated, Joseph, his kinsman, took his place. 



THE CALENDAR OF THE TABERNACLE. 93 

bullock, one ram, and seven lambs for a burnt-offering, 
and a goat for a sin-offering. Then, disrobing himself, 
he put on the pure white linen garments prescribed for 
the special service which characterized the day, and 
brought to the side of the altar a bullock for a sin- 
offering, and a ram for a holocaust, in behalf of himself 
and his associates in the priesthood. Two goats, as 
nearly alike as possible, were then brought and placed 
before him ; one to be slain as a sin-offering for the 
people, and the other to be sent into the wilderness to 
bear away their sins. Also a ram was formally pre- 
sented to and accepted by him, to be offered as a holo- 
caust in behalf of the nation, at the end of the special 
services of the day. He next cast lots to determine 
which of the two goats should be slain, and which 
should be the scape-goat. Having sacrificed the sin- 
offering which he had brought for himself, he gave to an 
assistant the dish containing its blood, to be cared for 
while he went into the innermost and holiest apartment 
of the tabernacle. Carrying with him a handful of 
incense, and a golden censer of burning coals taken 
from the sacrificial altar, he placed the censer before the 
ark, threw the incense upon the coals, and thus pro- 
duced a fragrant cloud which enveloped the mercy-seat. 
Coming out into the court, he took the blood of his own 
sin-offering, and, again entering the innermost apartment, 
sprinkled some of it upon the mercy-seat, and seven 
times in front of it. Returning to the court, he killed 
that one of the two goats which the lot had determined 
to death, and, carrying the blood of it into the taber- 
nacle, purified first the innermost apartment by sprink- 
ling upon and before the ark exactly as he had done 



94 



HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 



with the blood of his own sin-offering, afterward the 
holy place, and finally the altar of sacrifice in the court. 
The sanctuary being now cleansed from whatever taint 
of uncleanness it might otherwise have acquired from 
the sins of the people, the other goat was brought ; and 
the high-priest, laying his hands upon its head, made 
confession of sin over it in behalf of the whole people. 
Having thus put their iniquities, transgressions, and sins 
upon the head of the goat, he sent it away by the hand 
of a fit man into the wilderness, " to bear upon it all 
their iniquities unto a land of separation." 1 He then 
brought out the censer he had left smoking in the holy 
of holies, and thus put an end to the only ceremonies 
pertaining to this apartment of the tabernacle which the 
ritual required or permitted during the year. 

The ceremonial of the sin-offering being now com- 
pleted, the high-priest put off the linen garments peculiar 
to the day, washed himself, and put on the " garments of 
gold " which were the insignia of his office, and offered 
at the altar in the court his own burnt-offering, and that 
of the people. The bodies of the two animals which had 
been slain as sin-offerings, namely, of the bullock for the 
priests and the goat for the people, were carried beyond 
the limits of the camp, and burned to ashes, the fat being 
first removed from them, and consumed upon the altar. 
The person who burned the flesh, and the person who 
led away the goat into the wilderness, were both unclean 
for the remainder of the day. The usual tabernacle ser- 
vice of the evening was performed by the high-priest in 
person, who at its conclusion retired to his home and his 



1 Lev. xvi. 20-22 ; marginal reading. 



THE CALENDAR OF THE TABERNACLE. 



family, from whom he had lived apart during the preced- 
ing week to be secure from ritual defilement. 

The festival of tabernacles commenced five days after 
these solemnities of expiation ; and its two days of holy 
convocation, namely, the fifteenth and twenty -third, 
added to those occurring on the first and tenth, made 
four such days during this month, and filled up the com- 
plement of seven for the year. This was the most 
joyous of the annual celebrations. It was one of the 
three which, though established by a law given in the 
wilderness, had prospective reference to Canaan, and re- 
quired all male Hebrews to be present at the tabernacle. 
It was called also the festival of ingathering, because 
now not only the grain, but the produce of the vine and 
the olive-tree, had been secured. It was sometimes 
spoken of as continuing for seven days, and sometimes 
for eight days, according as the holy convocation day 
with which the festivities ended was reckoned as a con- 
stituent part of the festival, or as an appendix. For the 
first seven days the people were to dwell in booths 
formed of boughs of trees, still green with the thick 
foliage which had covered them during summer. 

The burnt-offerings of this festival were far more 
numerous than of any other. On each of the first seven 
days there were offered two rams and fourteen lambs, 
together with bullocks, the number of which, beginning 
with thirteen on the first day, was diminished by one 
every day to the seventh, when seven bullocks were a 
part of the occasional burnt-offering. Thus there were 
presented, during the seven days when the people dwelt 
in booths, seventy bullocks, or five times as many as dur- 



9 6 



HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 



ing the seven days of unleavened bread ; and the sacri- 
fices of lower grade, compared with those of the paschal 
week, were as two to one. On the eighth day the burnt- 
offering was diminished to one bullock, one ram, and 
seven lambs. The sin-offering was the same throughout 
the eight days, namely, one goat. Every seventh year 
the Law was publicly read to the people during this fes- 
tival, 1 a portion every day. 

Although this was doubtless instituted as a festival of 
thanksgiving for the fruits of the ground which had 
been gathered, it was designed also to remind the people 
of the life their fathers led in the wilderness. It was 
with this in view that they were required to dwell in 
booths as their fathers had lived in tents. It was also in 
reference to this, probably, that other usages not enjoined 
by Moses obtained at least in times later than the taber- 
nacle ; among which were the pouring of water drawn 
from the Pool of Siloam upon the altar as a drink-offer- 
ing in connection with the daily burnt-offerings, and in 
the evening an illumination of the court of the women, 
where the people assembled, and remained far into the 
night, rejoicing with songs and dances. This drawing 
and pouring of water took place both morning and 
evening every day during the first seven days of the 
festival ; and the evenings were devoted, excepting those 
which preceded the two sabbaths, one annual and one 
weekly, to such exuberant hilarity that it was said, " He 
that never saw the rejoicing at the drawing of water 
never saw rejoicing in all his life." 2 

There can be no doubt that our Lord had in mind 

1 Deut. xxxi. 10-13. 

2 Lightfoot's Works. London, 1684. Vol. i. p. 977. 



THE CALENDAR OF THE TABERNACLE. 



these scenes of mirth when, on the last day of the festi- 
val, he publicly and loudly called the attention of the 
people to himself as the fountain from which might be 
obtained water to quench the thirst of the spirit, and 
proclaimed that he was the light of the world destined 
to irradiate it as the lamps of gold illuminated the court 
of the temple. But as these utterances were made on 
" the last great day " of the feast, when the pouring and 
illuminating had come to an end, it was the absence of 
these demonstrations after they had been exhibited for 
a week, and not their presence at the moment, which 
gave peculiar force to these appeals. 

The festival of tabernacles, or of ingathering, was 
probably of seven days' duration; and the eighth day- 
was called atzereth} or conclusion, because it closed the 
cycle of annual festivals. But, as the atzereth followed 
immediately after the seven days in which the people 
lived in booths, it naturally was included with them in 
thought and speech ; and the more easily because the 
sabbath, with which the festival of tabernacles would 
normally have closed, was by appointment celebrated on 
the atzereth, and not on the seventh day of the festival. 
This union of the atzereth with the festival of tabernacles 
accounts for the occasional mention of the latter as con- 
tinuing eight days, while the time appointed for dwelling 

1 From "I^JJ, to shut up, to close. In the Niphal it sometimes means to be 
assembled; and our translators have rendered the noun rPVjJ. a solemn assembly. 
But the eighth day from the commencement of the festival was already appointed 
as " a day of holy convocation " according to the formula used in all other cases 
for sabbaths, both annual and weekly ; so that in the passage, " On the eighth day 
shall be a holy convocation unto you, and ye shall offer an offering made by fire 
to Jehovah ; it is a solemn assembly, and ye shall do no servile work therein," the 
original would be more accurately rendered if the words "the conclusion " were 
substituted for " a solemn assembly." 
9 



9 S 



HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 



in tabernacles was one day less. That the atzereth did 
not belong to the festival as the other seven days did, is 
evident from the sacrifices appointed for it, which are not 
only greatly reduced from those of the preceding week, 
but are even less than on the day of a new-moon, and 
from the desertion of the booths at the end of the 
seventh day. 

We have now surveyed the regularly occurring rites 
of the tabernacle ; namely, those which were performed 
daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly by the consecrated 
attendants of the edifice as representatives of the nation. 
These services were acts of worship rendered, in the 
name of the whole community, to Jehovah as their God 
dwelling among them in this holy habitation. They 
were offered to him by his own appointment, and there- 
fore in mutual recognition of the covenant by which 
he and they were bound together. 

But in addition to the ritual which the priests cele- 
brated statedly, and in the name of the whole commu- 
nity, other sacrifices were continually offered in behalf 
of persons who brought them of their own free will, or 
in accordance with some requirement of the law. The 
removal of ritual defilement was a frequent occasion of 
such sacrifices. Sin-offerings were also brought by indi- 
viduals when conscious, of inadvertent transgression, or 
of failure to fulfil a rash vow. The trespass-offering was 
in all cases a special and individual sacrifice, presented 
only when a person was accused' in his own conscience 
of wronging another in matters of property. Burnt- 
offerings, though presented daily on the altar in behalf 
of the commonwealth, were required of individuals in 



THE CALENDAR OF THE TABERNACLE. 



various contingences, and, being at any time permitted 
as free-will sacrifices, were frequently added to the morn- 
ing and evening oblation. Peace-offerings, or sacrifices 
of thanksgiving, were also of frequent occurrence, and, 
with the exception of one offered annually on the day of 
pentecost, were always brought by individuals. 

These private sacrifices, of Whatever kind they might 
be, were attended to by the priests either in the morning 
or evening in connection with the daily service. After 
the arrival in Canaan, and the dispersion of the tribes to 
occupy their several inheritances, such private sacrifices 
were greatly multiplied during the three festivals which 
required the whole male population to visit the national 
sanctuary ; since these occasions were naturally improved 
by persons residing at a distance for the presentation of 
whatever expiatory, dedicatory, or eucharistic offerings 
might have been prompted by their religious experience 
since the last visit to the place of sacrifice. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE MIGRATIONS OF THE TABERNACLE. 

The tabernacle, with its attendants and services, had 
now become an established institution. It appears as 
if the Israelites had been detained at Sinai chiefly to 
give time for the construction of this edifice, and the 
appointment of its services ; for not long after its con- 
secration the signal was given, by the lifting of the 
shechinah, to break up the encampment. The taber- 
nacle was accordingly taken down by its attendants, and 
prepared for transportation. 

First, the priests carefully covered the sacred articles 
of furniture ; and the Kohathites, being then admitted, 
carried them out on their shoulders to bear them in this 
manner to the next place of encampment. The Ger- 
shonites, now removing and folding the various hangings 
and curtains of the court and of the edifice, 1 piled them, 
with their cords, studs, and other fixtures, on the two 
wagons assigned to this use. The Merarites then loaded 
upon the four other wagons belonging to the sacred 
service, the planks and pillars of the tabernacle, with 
their bars and silver sockets ; the pillars of the court, 

l The hanging in front of the ark was an exception to the rule that all the 
drapery was under the charge of the sons of Gershon, being used by the priests 
as the first of several coverings put over the ark when it was to be removed, 
ioo 



THE MIGRATIONS OF THE TABERNACLE. 101 

with their sockets of copper, their cords, pins, and other 
fixtures. 

Meanwhile, preparations had been going on in all 
parts of the camp ; so that, when the Levites were ready 
to take their assigned place, the procession was already 
formed in the order in which it was to march, with 
spaces left for them and their charge. 

At the head of the procession might be seen the 
standard of the grand division, which, when the caravan 
was at rest, encamped on the east, or front of the taber- 
nacle. Under this standard marched the tribes of 
Judah, Issachar, and Zebulon. Then followed the Ger- 
shonites and the Merarites with their wagons, occupying 
a position near the head of the procession, in order 
that they might reach the place of the next encamp- 
ment, and set up the tabernacle, before the arrival of 
their brethren the Kohathites. By this arrangement the 
ark, the altar of incense, the chandelier, and the table, 
no sooner came up than they were carried within the 
edifice, and deposited in the places where they sever- 
ally belonged. Next after the wagons, came the second 
grand division under its standard, comprising the tribes 
whose camp had been on the south of the sanctuary ; 
namely, Reuben, Simeon, and Gad. In the middle of 
the column were the Kohathites, bearing, by means of 
staves reaching from shoulder to shoulder, things so holy 
that they might neither see nor touch them on penalty 
of death. After the Kohathites, the other six tribes, in 
two divisions, each with its standard, brought up the 
rear of the long procession. 

Such was the prescribed order for taking down, trans- 
porting, and re-erecting the sanctuary. This description 



102 HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 

will serve not only for the day of departure from Sinai, 
but for all subsequent days of travel. Whenever the 
shechinah gave the signal for removal, the tabernacle 
was thus carried from place to place, and set up anew for 
the evening worship. 

Of the first place of encampment after leaving Sinai, 
there is no record; and only three stations are men- 
tioned by name before the arrival at Kadesh in the 
wilderness of Paran, near the southern border of the 
promised land. Probably about two months had been 
spent on the road from Sinai to this station, as it was 
" the time of the first ripe grapes " 1 when spies were 
sent into Canaan to obtain information concerning the 
country and its inhabitants. 

From Kadesh the tabernacle would have been carried 
directly into the promised land, but for the unbelief and 
cowardice of the Israelites ; who, when the spies returned 
with the report that the land was inhabited by a warlike 
people of more than ordinary stature and strength, 
rebelled against their divine Leader, and refused to 
undertake the conquest of the country. So provoking to 
Jehovah was this distrust of him, that the whole adult 
community were sentenced to die in the wilderness ; 
and the entrance into the promised land was postponed 
forty years. 

Of the migrations of the tabernacle for nearly thirty- 
eight of these years, we have almost no knowledge. 
Probably it remained stationary for long periods, while 
the people scattered themselves in its vicinity, seeking 
pasturage for their flocks and herds. When the supply 

l Num. xiii. 20. 



THE MIGRATIONS OF THE TABERNACLE. 103 

was exhausted, and better grazing could be found else- 
where, they seem to have removed to a new station, 
without reference to the ultimate goal' of their journey. 
At all events, we find the camp, after a long period, 
again pitched in Kadesh. 

« It was probably during the first visit to Kadesh, or 
soon afterward, that the rebellion of Korah occurred, 
evincing a wide dissatisfaction with that appointment by 
which Aaron and his family were separated from the rest 
of the people to the sacerdotal office. The dissatisfac- 
tion must have been widely spread ; for not less than 
" two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous 
in the congregation, men of renown," 1 appeared in open 
mutiny, demanding that they, and all who desired it, might 
be admitted to an equal participation with Aaron and his 
sons in performing the services of the tabernacle. It 
seems to have had its origin in jealousy of the priests 
as invested with the honor of entering the habitation of 
God while their brethren must stand without, and to 
have founded its demand on the declaration of Jehovah 
that the whole people should be a kingdom of priests 
and a holy nation. The feeling pervaded not only the 
lay tribes, but extended into the tribe of Levi ; for Korah 
was a Levite of the family of Kohath, and Moses, in 
his address to the mutineers, administers a special 
rebuke to other Levites associated with him in his crime, 
but not mentioned by name. 

The question thus raised was submitted to the de- 
cision of Jehovah. At the instance of Moses, the two 
hundred and fifty men who had claimed the right to act 
as priests took censers in their hands, and attempted to 

1 Num. xvi. 2. , 



104 HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 

burn incense, but were immediately slain by a judgment 
of God while in the very act of sacrilege. At the same 
time the earth opened, and swallowed up many, if not all, 
who were in sympathy with them. The two hundred 
and fifty copper censers used by these rebels were ham- 
mered into plates, and fastened on the great altar in the 
court of the tabernacle, as a memorial of this event, and 
a warning in all coming time that no other person than 
such as had been called to the priesthood should attempt 
to burn incense before Jehovah. 

In further manifestation of the will of God that the 
religious services of the tabernacle should be performed 
only by Aaron and his descendants, the tribes were 
required to bring each a rod with the name of its chief 
officer written on it, to be laid up in the tabernacle till 
one of the rods should blossom, and thus indicate that 
Jehovah had chosen the person whom it represented. 
The day after the rods thus inscribed had been deposited, 
Moses brought them out again to the people ; and " be- 
hold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, 
and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and 
yielded almonds." 1 This rod, long preserved in the 
innermost apartment of the tabernacle, was the seal of 
Aaron's call and separation to the priesthood. 

After the rebellion of Korah, we have only incidental 
mention of the tabernacle as it occurs here and there in 
the narrative of the journey from Kadesh to the Jordan. 
In the passage of this river, the ark of the covenant, 
whose regular place was midway in the line of march, 
.was placed by Joshua, the successor of Moses, at the 

1 Num. xvii. 8. 



THE MIGRATIONS OF THE TABERNACLE. 105 

head of the procession, with directions to its bearers to 
stand still when m the middle of the river till the whole 
caravan had passed over. Accordingly the ark was car- 
ried into the river ; and, as soon as the feet of the priests 
who bore it — for on this occasion the priests had taken 
the place of the Kohathites as bearers — were dipped 
in the stream, the water which descended from above 
ceased to flow past the ark, piling itself as if arrested by 
an invisible wall, and swelling the volume of the river for 
many miles above to an unusual width and height. At 
the same time the water flowed off from that portion of 
the river which was below the ark into the Dead Sea. 
The whole host of the Israelites then hastily passed over ; 
forty thousand armed men from the tribes which had 
chosen to have their inheritance assigned them on the 
east side of the Jordan marching in the van. Twelve men 
appointed for the purpose, each the representative of a 
tribe, followed the main column, bearing twelve stones, 
which were set up in Gilgal, the place of the evening 
encampment, as a memorial to future generations of this 
miraculous passage of the Jordan. When all had reached 
the western bank, the priests, at the command of Joshua, 
brought out the ark ; and, as soon as their feet touched 
the shore, the water which had been driven back up the 
stream began to flow downward again as in the morning, 
and soon covered its ancient bed. 

The passage of the Jordan occurred on the tenth day 
of the first month, four days previous to the anniversary 
of the exodus from Egypt ; and, as the Hebrews had 
now arrived within the promised land, the formal ob- 
servance of that anniversary was by law obligatory. 
Accordingly the passover was kept at Gilgal ; the rite of 



106 HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE, 

circumcision, which for many years had been neglected, 
being first performed upon all the uncircumcised young 
men and boys in the camp. 

The tabernacle remained for several years in this its 
first station after the passage of the Jordan, while Joshua 
with his fellow-soldiers was engaged in the conquest 
of the aboriginal inhabitants of the country. From 
time to time military expeditions went out from, and 
returned to, Gilgal ; but the tabernacle remained station- 
ary in the midst of a large population including the 
priests and Levites, the women and children, the sick 
and the aged, with a sufficient garrison of soldiers. 

When the enemy had been driven from the field, and 
held only some fortified cities, the headquarters of the 
Hebrews were removed from Gilgal to Shiloh, more cen- 
trally situated in their newly acquired territory. Here 
the tabernacle was set up ; and here it remained, with its 
attendant priests and Levites, after the country had been 
divided by lot, and the tribes had departed to take pos- 
session of their respective portions. We find it still 
here three centuries later : for it was in Shiloh that 
Hophni and Phinehas, the profligate sons of Eli, pro- 
faned the sanctuary with their rapacity and lewdness ; 
and it was from Shiloh that the ark of the covenant was 
carried into battle when it was captured by the Philis- 
tines, and its sacrilegious attendants, Hophni and 
Phinehas, were slain. 

The captured ark was conveyed by the Philistines 
from the field of their victory to Ashdod, thence to Gath, 
and thence to Ekron ; but in all these cities it was 
found to be an occasion of calamity to the captors, so 
that after seven months they were more than willing to 
restore it to the Hebrews. 



THE MIGRATIONS OF THE TABERNACLE. 107 

The inhabitants of Beth-shemesh, near the border of 
Philistia, were engaged in harvesting wheat when the 
cart approached them on which the Philistines had 
placed the ark ; and " they lifted up their eyes, and saw 
the ark, and rejoiced to see it." 1 Their joy, however, 
was not tempered with due reverence ; for they dared to 
open and look into the ark. and were smitten with death, 
in consequence, to the number of seventy men. 2 The 
survivors, overcome with fear, were now as desirous that 
the ark should leave Beth-shemesh as they had been glad 
to receive it, and sent messengers to the inhabitants of 
Kirjath-jearim to come and carry it home to their vil- 
lage, a few miles farther from the Philistine border. 
Why it was not conveyed at once to Shiloh, and deposited 
in the holy of holies, we cannot learn. Perhaps the tab- 
ernacle had already been removed from Shiloh to Nob, 
as a place of greater security ; but even then the ques- 
tion remains, Why was not the ark restored to its ancient 
seat within the sanctuary ? 

Strange as it appears to us, the ark was carried to 
Kirjath-jearim, and remained there apart from the taber- 
nacle for half a century. Its captivity had perhaps dimin- 
ished the pride and confidence with which the people 
had regarded it, for it was much neglected during the 
days of Samuel and Saul. For the first twenty years 
especially, there seems to have been a great decline in 
religion as well as in military power and material pros- 
perity. Victory was on the side of the Philistines, who 

1 1 Sam. vi. 13. 

2 The most conservative critics allow that there is some error in the Hebrew 
text in respect to the number of persons who were smitten with death at Beth- 
shemesh for profaning the ark. The error is older than the Septuagint version, 
which agrees with the Hebrew. 



io8 ' HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 

devastated some parts of the country, and held other 
parts with military occupation. The Hebrews, instead 
of resorting with repentance to Jehovah, sought help 
from the vanities of the heathen. In this state of things, 
an effort was made by Samuel, when the ark had been 
about twenty years in the house of Abinadab at Kirjath- 
jearim, to recall the people from the idolatry into which 
they had fallen to the exclusive worship of Jehovah. 
The effort was partially successful, but not to the extent 
of reinstating the ark in the high place it had formerly 
held in popular esteem. 

When King David had captured Jerusalem from the 
Jebusites, and chosen it as the seat of his government, 
he desired to make it also the resting-place of the ark. 
Accordingly, having first consulted with his captains of 
thousands and hundreds, he said to all the congregation 
of Israel, " Let us bring again the ark of our God to us ; 
for we inquired not at it in the days of Saul." 1 Gladly 
the people responded to the proposal of the king, and 
assembled in great numbers " to bring the ark of God 
from Kirjath-jearim." 2 With singing and with harps, 
with psalteries and with timbrels, with cymbals and 
with trumpets, the procession moved toward the new 
seat of government and religion, when suddenly the joy 
was turned to mourning by the instant death of Uzza, a 
young man belonging to the family in whose house the 
ark had so long had its abode. They were conveying 
the ark on a cart drawn by oxen, instead of transporting 
it on the shoulders of Levites by means of staves ; and 
when the oxen stumbled, and Uzza, in violation of the 
law, touched the sacred oracle to save it from a fall, he 

1 i Chron. xiii. 3. 2 1 Chron. xiii. 5. 



THE MIGRATIONS OF THE TABERNACLE. 109 

suffered death as the punishment of his presumption. 
This sad event put an end not only to the music and 
rejoicing which accompanied the procession, but to the 
journey itself ; and the ark was left in the house of 
Obed-edom, near the place where Uzza died. 

Three months later King David, who had meanwhile 
more than once consulted the oracle, came to convey it, 
in the legitimate and proper method of its transportation, 
to Jerusalem, where he had prepared for it a tent. 
Again the procession moved toward Zion, accompanied 
with vocal and instrumental music ; the ark being this 
time borne on the shoulders of Levites clothed, as were 
also the musicians, in garments of white. The king, 
wearing a white linen ephod, led the procession ; and, 
much to the scandal of Michal his wife, indulged in the 
liveliest expressions of joy as the venerable relic which 
connected Zion with Sinai, and himself with Moses, 
passed through the streets of the city to the place pre- 
pared for its rest. 

Several psalms prepared by him for the occasion have 
been preserved to us. Besides those mentioned in the 
Book of Chronicles, there is internal evidence that the 
following was composed for this occasion : 1 — 

" Jehovah, remember David 

And all his afflictions : 
How he sware unto Jehovah, 

And vowed unto the mighty One of Jacob, — 
Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, 

Nor go up into my bed, 
I will not give sleep to my eyes, 

Or slumber to my eyelids, 
Until I find out a place for Jehovah, 

1 Ps. cxxxii. 

10 



110 



HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 



A habitation for the mighty One of Jacob. 
Lo, we heard of it at Ephratah ; 

We found it in the fields of the wood. 
We will go into his tabernacles ; 

We will worship at his footstool. 
Arise, Jehovah, into thy rest, 

Thou, and the ark of thy strength. 
Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness, 

And let thy saints shout for joy. 
On account of David thy servant {grant these requests/) 

Turn not away the face of thy Anointed. 
For Jehovah hath sworn in truth unto David, — 

He will not turn from it, — 
1 Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne : 

If thy sons keep my covenant, 
And my testimony which I shall teach them, 

Their sons also forever 
Shall sit upon thy throne.' 

For Jehovah hath chosen Zion ; 
He hath desired it for his habitation. 

This is my rest forever ; 
Here will I dwell, for I have desired it. 

I will abundantly bless her provision ; 
I will satisfy her poor with bread ; 

I will also clothe her priests with salvation ; 
And her saints shall shout aloud for joy. 

There will I make the horn of David to grow ; 
I have ordained light for my Anointed. 

His enemies will I clothe with shame ; 
But, as for him, his crown shall flourish." 

The ark was thus established in Jerusalem, its final 
resting-place ; but the tabernacle remained in Gibeon, 
whither it had been conveyed from Nob before this 
removal of the ark. It is not easy to believe that David 
would have allowed this separation to continue without 
some intimation that such was the will of God. Inex- 



THE MIGRATIONS OF THE TABERNACLE. ill 

plicable before, this continued separation of the ark from 
the tabernacle and its services, becomes still more mys- 
terious now when the Philistines have been driven from 
the land, the tribes have been united under a popular 
and powerful monarch, and the ark has been established 
in the city of this great king, with a retinue of attendants 
and a daily service of worship ; for it must not be forgot- 
ten, that from the time of the arrival of the ark in Jeru- 
salem there was, as has been mentioned in a previous 
chapter, a daily service of praise before it, accompanied 
sometimes with free-will burnt-offerings and peace- 
offerings. 

At the same time the daily, weekly, monthly, annual, 
and special services of the tabernacle, as appointed by 
Moses, were held at Gibeon, where " Zadok the priest, 
and his brethren the priests," 1 resided in order to offi- 
ciate. Here the people assembled thrice every year to 
celebrate the passover, the day of pentecost, and the 
completion of harvest. Here Solomon came to sacrifice 
at the beginning of his reign ; for it was at Gibeon 2 
(where was the tabernacle " which Moses the servant of 
Jehovah had made in the wilderness," and the brazen 
altar that Bezaleel had made), that, being invited to ask 
of God whatever he most desired to receive, he made 
choice of wisdom and knowledge, rather than of riches, 
wealth, and honor. 

Gibeon continued to be the seat of the national sacri- 
fices till the completion of Solomon's temple, when 
" they brought up the ark, and the tabernacle of the con- 
gregation, and all the holy vessels that were in the taber- 
nacle " 3 with great ceremony, and deposited them within 

1 i Chron. xvi. 39. 2 2 Chron. i. 3. 3 2 Chron. v. 5. 



112 



HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 



the walls of that edifice. The language of the inspired 
narrative does not perhaps forbid the supposition that 
the tent which David had pitched in Jerusalem is here 
intended rather than the sanctuary at Gibeon ; , but the 
Jewish tradition is, that the tabernacle erected by Moses 
was thus laid away in the temple as a sacred relic of the 
past. Josephus says expressly, " So they carried the 
ark, and the tabernacle which Moses had pitched, and all 
the vessels that were for ministration to the sacrifices of 
God, and removed them to the temple." 1 

We hear nothing of this edifice afterward, or of the 
parts into which it was now resolved, but may conjecture 
that its pillars, its bars, and its sockets, were stored in 
some of the chambers of the temple till they were con- 
sumed or lost at the destruction of the city by Nebu- 
chadnezzar. 

1 Antiq. book viii. ch. 4. 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE EXPENSES OF THE TABERNACLE. 

We have acquainted ourselves with the tabernacle 
sufficiently to know that it must have been costly in its 
original construction, and also in its subsequent mainte- 
nance. The edifice, though small, was expensive both in 
its materials, and by the expenditure of much labor and 
eminent skill in its fabrication. Its services required 
not only a daily supply of animals for sacrifice, but of 
flour, wine, oil, and perfumes, all of the finest quality. 
Its numerous attendants, as they were separated to its 
exclusive service, must receive for themselves and their 
families a sufficient sustenance. 

These expenses must, of course, be levied in some 
way on the whole people among whom Jehovah dwelt in 
this his holy habitation. By what system, then, was a 
revenue collected sufficient for the expenses of the 
sanctuary ? 

Its construction was provided ior, as we have already 
had occasion to observe, by voluntary donations ; and 
the enthusiasm of the people was such, that the invita- 
tion to contribute was shortly followed by a public 
notification that the gifts already brought in fully 
equalled the requirements. It is, however, noteworthy, 
that, of the materials used in the construction, one item 

"3 



ii4 



HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 



is an exception to the rule that they were provided by 
voluntary donation. The silver was the product of a 
poll-tax of half a shekel laid on all male Israelites from 
twenty years old upward, and amounted to (100) one 
hundred talents, and (1,775) one thousand seven hundred 
and seventy-five shekels. Of the silver thus obtained, 
one hundred bases of solid metal were made for the 
planks and pillars of the edifice, each weighing one 
talent; and the remaining fraction of a talent was used 
for plating the capitals of the pillars around the court, 
for the rods extending from pillar to pillar, and for the 
hooks by which the curtains were suspended. 1 

The current expenses of the tabernacle were defrayed 
by taxes of different kinds; the laws by which these 
taxes were imposed being framed with reference to the 
settlement of the people in the promised land, and their 
operation being modified by their nomadic life while in 
the wilderness. 2 

1 Bush, in Notes on Exodus, ch. xxxviii. 24, gives the following estimate of the 
cost of the tabernacle : "The gold weighed 29 talents and 730 shekels, if we allow 
3,000 shekels to the talent of 125 lbs. ; and this at £4 the ounce would be equal to 
£175,000, or nearly $875,000. The silver was 100 talents and 1,775 shekels, being 
a half -shekel from all the males above twenty years of age when they came out 
of Egypt, whose number was 603,550 ; the whole value of this would, at 5 j. the 
ounce, be £39,721, or nearly $198^605. The brass, or rather copper, was 70 talents 
and 2, 400 shekels ; which, if valued at is. 3d. the pound avoirdupois, would be worth 
£138, or $690. The amount of these several sums would not be less than £213,320, 
or $1 '066,600. But this amount does not include the curtains of the enclosure, the 
coverings of the tabernacle, the dress of the high-priest and its jewels, the dresses 
of the common priests, or the value of the skill and labor employed in the work ; 
the whole of which may be fairly taken to have raised its value to the immense 
sum of £250,000, or $r l 25o 4 poo. J ' _ 

2 There are inherent evidences in the laws enacted at Sinai that they 
were there enacted and committed to writing. One such is the assumption 
that the Hfbrews were shortly to be in possession of Canaan. The laws are 



THE EXPENSES OF THE TABERNACLE. 115 



First of all was the annual poll-tax of a half-shekel, 
which, for the year of sojourn at Sinai, was put to the 
account of construction, but afterward was used to pay 
for animals sacrificed, for the show-bread, for wood 
for the altar, and for any other items properly chargeable 
to the common treasury. It was expressly enacted, that, 
in the collection of this tax, no distinction should be made 
between rich and poor. 1 Every male of twenty years 
old upward must pay his half-shekel as a tax, not on his 
inheritance or his income, but on himself. If he was 
poor, this was the seal that in the sight of Jehovah he 
was equal to the richest of his brethren ; if he was rich, 
this was to remind him that the poorest of his neighbors 
had an equal right with himself in the daily sacrifice, and 
in all the privileges of the sanctuary. 

It might seem, at first thought, as if so small a tax as 
a half-shekel would not yield a sufficient amount for the 

framed as if the 600,000 armed men now encamped before the " terrible mount" 
were to march directly and immediately into the land promised to Abraham their 
father. Such was the expectation of Moses at that time ; and such would have 
been the reality but for the unbelief and cowardice of the people. Such an 
assumption is fatal to the hypothesis that these laws were not written till many 
centuries after the death of Moses, and ought to be received as evidence that they 
were written out at Sinai, as a water-mark in paper establishes the place and date 
of its manufacture. Yet Ewald saw this " water-mark^ and judges that it was 
put in designedly by a writer in the time of Solomon, but not with intention to 
deceive. "The author never makes any pretence of being taken for Moses himself : 
indeed, we should do great wrong to the simple narrator, were we to suppose this ; 
for he even describes equally innocently, and on the same plan, the rise of legal 
institutions under Joshua, and closes his work with the erection of the Temple of 
Solomon ; and where a precept is inserted for the connection's sake, which is to be 
applied only in the Holy Land, not in the wilderness, the author sometimes makes 
Moses himself announce it, only by way of prophecy, with the addition, ' when 
ye come into the Holy Land.' " (Geschichte des Volkes Israel. English trans- 
lation, London, 1869, vol. i. p. 90.) The highest degree in scholarship cannot 
justify confidence in the conclusions of a man capable of such absurdity. 
1 Exod. xxx. 15. 



Ii6 HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 

purposes specified; but a second thought will correct 
such an impression. There were at Sinai more than 
(600,000) six hundred thousand persons who paid this 
tax ; so that, reckoning the half-shekel at three dimes, 
the tax yielded more than ($ 1 80,000) one hundred and 
eighty thousand dollars. The amount in subsequent 
years was, probably, never much less, and after the settle- 
ment in Canaan must have been much larger than at 
the exodus. 1 Such a sum must have been amply suffi- 
cient, when we remember that no part of it went for the 
support of the priests and Levites ; who were provided 
for by other taxes, of which we have yet to speak. 

Lightfoot gives an account of the collection and stor- 
age of this half-shekel tax, in the time of the temple, of 
which the following is an abstract : ■ — 

"There were thirteen treasure-chests at the temple, 
commonly called shopheroth from their trumpet-like shape. 
Two of these chests were for the half-shekel that every 
Israelite was to pay ; the one chest for the payment of 
the last year if he had missed to pay at the due time, 
and the other for the half-shekel for the year present. 
On the first day of Adar, which answers in part to our 
February, general notice was given throughout the 
country that they should provide to pay their half-shekel ; 
and on the fifteenth day of that month the collectors sat 
in every city to gather it, and they had two chests before 
them, as were at the temple ; and they demanded payment 
calmly, and used no roughness or compulsion. 

1 The number of men able to bear arms, as enrolled in the census at Sinai, was 
603,550 ; and a similar enrolment on the plains of Moab nearly forty years after- 
ward enumerated 601,730. Some of the tribes had largely increased, and others 
had suffered loss ; but the aggregate was not much changed. 



THE EXPENSES OF THE TABERNACLE. uj 



" On the five and twentieth day of the month, the col- 
lectors began to sit in the temple, and then they forced 
men to pay ; and, if any one had not wherewith to pay, 
they took his pawn, and sometimes would take his very 
raiment perforce. They had a table before them to 
count and change the money upon, and two. chests be- 
fore them to put into. When a man brought a shekel to 
change, and must have half a shekel again, the collector 
w r as to have some profit upon the change ; and that addi- 
tion, or profit, was called kolbon. Nay, if two came 
together, and paid a shekel for them both, so that there 
needed no change, yet the receiver was to have some 
profit from them both. It was this exaction within the 
courts of the temple which caused our Saviour to over- 
throw the tables of these kolbonists!' 1 

Passing from the consideration of the treasure-chests 
to that of treasure-chambers, he continues, " There was 
the chamber, or treasury, of the half-shekel poll-money, 
into which the two chests that have been spoken of 
were emptied when they were full, and the chamber 
locked and sealed up. Now, at three set times of the 
year they took the" money out of this chamber again. 
The Talmud, and Maimonides in the treatise Shekalim, 
do give the story, and the manner of that action, thus : 
at three times of the year they emptied this chamber ; 
namely, fifteen days before the passover, fifteen days 
before pentecost, and fifteen days before the festival of 
tabernacles. 

" He that went in to fetch out the money must not go 
in in any garment in which it was possible to hide 
money, nor in his shoes or sandals, no, nor with his phy- 

l Lightfoot, vol. i. p. 1095. 



\ Il8 HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 

lacteries on ; because it was possible to hide money 
under them. When he went in, a watch stood at the 
door without ; and all the time he was within they talked 
to him, and he again to them, so that he might be pre- 
vented from putting any money into his mouth. The 
money that was in the chamber was put up, when it was 
first brought in, into three great chests containing nine 
seahs, or three bushels, apiece ; and, if there were more 
brought in than would go into these three chests, it was 
laid by somewhere in the chamber. He that went in 
took three chests of three seahs apiece, or every one 
containing a bushel, and he filled them out of the great 
chests within. Thus having filled these three at one 
time, they were brought out, and the money bestowed to 
buy the daily sacrifices and other things necessary for 
the service ; and thus they laid out the money as long 
as those three bushels would run ; and at the next 
appointed time he went into the chamber again, and did 
the like." 1 

These Jewish accounts of the collection and storage 
of the half-shekel tax, if not directly applicable to the 
time of the tabernacle, will at least serve to show that 
the tax was levied annually, and not, as one might per- 
haps infer from the letter of the law, 2 at intervals of 
many years. 

Such being the provision of treasure for the purchase of 
whatever was necessary for the service of the sanctuary, 
we pass on to consider other taxes levied for the support 
of the priests and Levites. 

To the priests, then, belonged the first-born of animals 
and of men, the first-fruits of all produce of the earth, 



1 Lightfoot, vol. i. p. 1097. 



2 Exod. xxx. 12-16. 



THE EXPENSES OF THE TABERNACLE. 119 



one-tenth of the tithes or one per cent of all the cattle 
and produce remaining after the firstlings and first-fruits 
had been rendered, certain prescribed parts of the sacri- 
fices, and some perquisites irregular in their occurrence 
and quite diverse in amount. To the Levites belonged 
the tithes, subject to the deduction of one-tenth for the 
priests. 

We will review the sources of income to the priest- 
hood enumerated above, offering such remarks as may 
be necessary in explanation of each. 

To the priests, then, belonged all the first-born both of 
man and beast. The law was, indeed, differently inter- 
preted in the two cases ; with sole reference to the dam 
in the case of domestic animals, but with reference to 
marriage and the family when applied to the offspring 
of a woman. By the first-born in a family, this law 
intended the first issue of a woman by her first husband, 
the child being a male, and the first-born of its father. 
Every such first-born son was holy to Jehovah, and must 
be redeemed with five shekels, to be paid into the com- 
mon treasury of the priests. 1 Every firstling animal also 

1 Ignorance of the interpretation put upon this law occasioned one of the 
difficulties experienced by Colenso. He could not understand how there could be 
so few first-born males at the time of the exodus as (22,273) twenty-two thousand, 
two hundred and seventy-three ; assuming evidently that this enumeration included 
every male who was the first-born of a woman. But the difficulty disappears when 
we have reduced the number of families which would be taxable for the birth of a 
firstling by excluding those in which the first-born was a female, those in which 
the wife had borne children by a former husband, and those in which the husband 
was already a father. For example : if in the family of King David the first-born 
child had been a female, he would have been exempt from this tax ; and, if his first 
child had been a son by Abigail, he would have been exempt if she had borne a 
child, either male or female, to her former husband. Having paid five shekels for 
the redemption of Amnon, his first-born by Ahinoam, he was ever after exempt, 
though he had many a wife whose first child was a son. See Lund, Die alten 
Jiidischen Heiligthiimer. Hamburg, 1738. P. 703. 



1 

120 HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 



belonged to Jehovah, and was by him given to the priests ; 
so that every such birth must be accounted for, either 
by the delivery of the animal itself, or by an equivalent. 
If suitable for food, it could not be represented by a sub- 
stitute ; but its blood must be sprinkled on the altar, and 
its fat offered to Jehovah in the fire. After these rites 
of sacrifice had been , performed, the flesh belonged to 
the priests. If unclean, the animal must be redeemed ; 
as, for example, a lamb was the appointed substitute for 
the firstling of an ass. 

To the priests belonged the first-fruits of all produce 
of the earth. The law did not, indeed, prescribe how 
large a portion should be thus consecrated : but custom 
fixed one-sixtieth as the minimum of this tax ; while the 
liberal gave more, and the very liberal one-fortieth, or 
even one- thirtieth. The householder might not eat of any 
kind of the produce of his fields till he had separated 
a portion of it as an offering of first-fruits ; and, when 
he had so divided, must not appropriate to his own use 
the least part of what he had .consecrated. The law of 
first-fruits applied not only to all grains and fruits, but to 
wine, oil, honey, and wool. 1 

To the priests belonged, in addition to the firstlings 

1 It is important to keep in mind the difference between the national presenta- 
tion of first-fruits as a religious ceremony performed at the three festivals of pass- 
over, pentecost, and tabernacles, and this oblation by individuals for the support of 
the priests. Lund thinks that there were two presentations of first-fruits by indi- 
viduals : one of specimens earliest ripe, but only in small quantity, and chiefly as 
a rite of religious acknowledgment and thanksgiving, though after being pre- 
sented as a thank-offering they belonged to the priests ; the other such as is 
described above. He distinguishes them by the names Biccurim and Trumah. 
If the distinction is well founded, which some deny, it is not necessary to remem- 
ber it in treating of the income of the priests, since in either case every thing 
consecrated as first-fruits belonged to them. 



THE EXPENSES OF THE TABERNACLE. 121 



and first-fruits, one per cent of the increase of all cattle 
and of all produce of the earth, remaining after the first- 
lings and first-fruits had been deducted. This item of 
their income came to them through the Levites ; who 
received tithes from the other tribes, but were obliged 
to pay to the priests one-tenth of what they received. 

To the priests belonged the skin of every animal 
whose flesh was laid on the altar, the skin being con- 
sumed with the flesh only in the few cases where the 
victim was burned outside of the camp. More or less of 
the flesh of all sacrificial animals except burnt-offerings 
was also assigned by the law to the priests. Of a sin- 
offering they had all that was eatable except when the 
sacrifice was for the sin of a priest, or of the whole con- 
gregation ; in which case the victim was carried outside 
of the camp, and burned. The flesh of a trespass-offer- 
ing was also their property, to be eaten, like the sin- 
offering, by them only. Of peace-offerings the breast 
belonged to the priests in common, while the right hind- 
leg was the perquisite of the individual who officiated at 
the sacrifice ; and these parts of a peace-offering might 
be carried out of the sanctuary, and sold, or eaten at 
home. Of meat-offerings, both cooked and uncooked, 
almost the whole went to the priest, a small portion 
being first consumed on the altar. 

To these regular and constant sources of income we 
must add occasional perquisites of irregular occurrence. 
When the Hebrews conquered Midian, the priests had a 
definite portion of the spoils assigned to them; and, 
though we find no similar instance recorded, the law 
which assigned a portion to the priests, and another to 
the Levites, appears to be intended to cover all subse- 



122 HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 

quent cases as well as that which occasioned its pro- 
mulgation ; so that the priests probably had a share in 
all the spoils of war captured by the army. To these 
we must add every thing consecrated by vows condi- 
tional and unconditional, every reparation for a trespass 
"in holy things," and every reparation for a trespass 
against a neighbor when the person against whom the 
trespass was committed could not be found. 

The above enumeration includes nearly but perhaps 
not quite all the sources from which the priests derived 
their income. But they had, in addition, houses and 
lands more than sufficient to furnish their families with 
homes ; for thirteen cities with suburbs were assigned to 
them in the division of the territory by Joshua. 

To the Levites belonged, as we have already had 
occasion to observe, the tithes of all the cattle and 
produce remaining after the firstlings and first-fruits had 
been taken out ; subject, however, to a deduction of one- 
tenth, which they, as well as Israelites of other tribes, 
must pay for the support of the priesthood. With the 
exception of a share in the spoils of war, and the cities 
with their suburbs assigned them in all parts of the 
country, the Levites had no other means of support 
than these tithes. 

The law of tithes, as it referred to domestic animals, 
required, that, after the firstlings had been counted out 
for the priests, every tenth animal of each kind should 
be marked for the Levites, and either delivered identically 
to the officer who had custody of the tithes, or redeemed 
with money. There could be no change of animal for 
animal to please the taste or covetousness of the owner. 
As they passed out from a pen, every tenth animal was 



THE EXPENSES OF THE TABERNACLE. 123 

marked, and was no longer the property of the person 
who owned the remaining nine-tenths. The law was so 
interpreted, that, if a householder had less than ten of 
any one kind of animals after the firstlings were taken 
out, he was exempt from the tithing of that part of his 
property ; and probably a similar rule obtained in regard 
to any fraction of ten remaining at the end of a count. 

The law of tithes, as it referred to produce, required 
that, after the first-fruits had been taken out, the house- 
holder should separate one-tenth of the remainder for 
the Levites before any thing had been eaten by his own 
family. 

In addition to the provision made for the support of 
the services and attendants of the tabernacle, a tax was 
levied on all Israelites for the proper celebration of the 
festivals. 

This was a second tithe, which must also be sub- 
tracted before any part of the harvest could be used by 
the family for home consumption. But this second 
tithe, though in one sense a tax, belonged still to the 
householder, and served, in some degree at least, for the 
sustenance of himself and family ; for the law required 
that he should carry this tithe, either in kind, or in 
money at a fair valuation, to the place where the taber- 
nacle was standing at the time, and there feast upon it 
with his family and friends. Naturally this requisition 
was fulfilled at the festivals, and especially at the festi- 
val of tabernacles, when the harvest had been recently 
gathered. 1 

1 It is not necessary to our principal design to inquire further concerning tithes ; 
but it may not be amiss to state, that in addition to the first and second tithes, 
mentioned above, there was a third tithe, payable twice during the period between 



124 HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE. 

When we take all these sources of revenue into con- 
sideration, it appears as if there could have been no 
deficiency of means for the support of the tabernacle. 
Its services, its attendants, and its festivals, must have 
been abundantly provided for, if these requisitions of 
the law were carried into execution. But as the law 
made no inquisition respecting the amount which an 
individual should pay, but left it to himself to decide, 
only promising that God would increase the substance 
of those who were faithful, and withhold his blessing 
from those who robbed him, it is probable that there 
were always some who paid less than they ought, and 
that, at periods when religion had comparatively little 
hold on the conscience or on the hopes and fears of 
the people, there was a disposition widely prevalent to 
evade the taxes required for its maintenance. 

This disposition would naturally affect the income 
of the attendants of the tabernacle to a greater extent 
than it did the provision for the expenses of worship, 
or the contributions for the celebration of festivities 
in which the contributors personally participated. Of 
these latter items of expense, one was met by a small 
poll-tax which could not easily be evaded, and the other 
appealed to the love of good cheer and social hilarity. 
But whoever would estimate aright the income of the 
priests and Levites should make a large discount from 
the amount due them according to law. The tribe of 
Levi was less in number than one-twentieth of the 

two sabbatical years; namely, in the third and sixth years. This was called the 
"alms-tithe," and was given to the poor. After an Israelite had paid this tithe, 
he was to make a solemn declaration that he had been faithful, and had withholden 
nothing ; appealing to Jehovah for his blessing accordingly. See Deut. xxvi. 12-15. 



THE EXPENSES OF THE TABERNACLE. 125 



whole population, so that a tenth of the increase of a 
year would enrich them beyond the average wealth of 
their brethren of other tribes ; but there are indications 
in the Old Testament that there was sometimes desti- 
tution among both priests and Levites such as can be 
accounted for only on the supposition that great num- 
bers of the people were unfaithful in the payment of 
tithes and offerings. Probably the attendants of the 
tabernacle did not, even in those periods when the sense 
of religious obligation was most deeply and widely felt, 
receive a larger portion than would have fallen to them 
from an equal distribution of the increase of the land 

from year to year. 

11* 



PART II. 

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE 
TABERNACLE. 



CHAPTER I. 



EVIDENCE THAT THE TABERNACLE WAS SIGNIFICANT. 

A pagan traveller entering a Christian church, and 
there beholding the celebration of the Lord's Supper, 
would have a very inadequate conception of the signifi- 
cance of the rite. To one who has been instructed in 
Christianity, the eucharistic bread and wine are symbols 
representing the body and blood of Christ, and excite 
his mind to activity in a higher sphere of thought and 
feeling than that to which an ordinary table relates ; but 
to the pagan utterly uninstructed in Christianity, the 
spectacle would convey little if any religious significance. 

In like manner, and to an equal extent, might a person 
who saw in the tabernacle erected by Moses at Sinai 
nothing mOre than a house of worship, and outward ordi- 
nances of divine service, come short of comprehending 
its import. Indeed, the higher meaning of the institu- 
tions established by Moses was not only hidden from 
those who were entirely uninstructed, but neglected and 
forgotten to a great extent even by the Hebrews. As 
Christians sometimes content themselves with an out- 
ward observance of the eucharist, not discerning the 
Lord's body therein ; so there was a tendency among 
Israelites, greater perhaps by reason of the sensuousness 
of the age than among Christians, to rest in the observ- 

129 



13° 



SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNA CIE. 



ance of outward rites, and live in forgetfulness of the 
truths which they symbolized. But though forgotten by 
the ungodly Israelite, and hidden from the untutored 
Gentile, there were represented, in the visible objects and 
transactions of the tabernacle, things invisible and eternal. 

Having, in the first part of this work, attempted to 
describe the edifice as it appeared to the outward sense, 
we now propose to inquire what it imported in the mind 
of Him who first conceived it, and showed to Moses its 
pattern in the mount. Of course, in such an inquiry, we 
must fall far short of our aim, as we do in all our studies 
of the thoughts of God. The tabernacle imported more 
to the infinite mind which invented and patterned it 
than even Moses was capable of comprehending ; and 
yet, in some respects at least, Moses had better opportu- 
nities to study the correspondence between the outward 
institutions he was the instrument of establishing, and 
the spiritual truths they represented, than any other 
man, either Jew or Gentile. But though we cannot 
attain to a complete mastery of the significance of the 
tabernacle, or even to such knowledge of it as was 
imparted to Moses, we may to some extent learn to read 
its symbols. 

The aim of the present chapter is to prove the position 
we have taken, that the tabernacle had a symbolic signifi- 
cance—that the edifice, with its equipments, its attend- 
ants, and its services, as it appeared to the senses, 
represented a system of truth in the higher sphere of the 
invisible and eternal 



,If W e compare the time in which Moses lived with 
the present, we find that symbolic language was charac- 



THE TABERNACLE WAS SIGNIFICANT. 131 

teristic of his age, as written language is of ours. Al- 
phabetic writing is the product of a comparatively high 
civilization. As a child is interested in the work of the 
engraver earlier than in the letter-press of the com- 
positor ; so a nation, in its progress from stupidity and 
ignorance to intellectual activity and culture, comes to 
the use of symbols sooner than to the invention of an 
alphabet. The aboriginal inhabitants of New England 
knew no letters ; but, when the sachem of the Narragan- 
setts wished to menace the colonists at Plymouth with 
war, he did it by sending a bundle of arrows tied with a 
snake-skin, and understood the reply when they returned 
his snake-skin filled with powder and ball. 

The Hebrew alphabet was unquestionably in existence 
before the time of Moses. Even Ewald, though main- 
taining that the art of writing was but little used till 
afterward, is constrained to admit that Moses was ac- 
quainted with the characters of the Hebrew alphabet, 
and used them in writing the Decalogue, and some other 
fragments of the books which pass under his name. But 
though Moses could understand the significance of the 
alphabetic characters, and could by means of them com- 
mit his thoughts to writing, it does not follow that a 
large number of the Israelites could even read alphabetic 
writing. It is still more improbable that they could read 
it with fluency. It is easy to believe that, among a peo- 
ple so long and so much oppressed as they had been in 
Egypt, literary culture was not widely diffused ; and that 
a large majority, if not all of them, could be more 
instructed and impressed through symbols than by means 
of books. 

But the use of symbols accords not only with the 



i 3 2 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

degree of culture which obtained among the people 
whom Moses led out of Egypt, but with the usage of the 
age. The Egyptians, for example, were accustomed to 
convey their thoughts not only by means of phonetic 
characters, but by means of symbolic pictures. In this 
kind of hieroglyphics, eternity was expressed by a ser- 
pent with its tail folded and concealed under a part of its 
body, so that it seemed to have no end ; knowledge was 
indicated by a picture of the heavens shedding down 
dew, which suggested, that as dew is diffused over all 
plants, and makes soft and pliable only those which are 
capable of being softened, but exerts no influence upon 
those which in their own nature are hard, so knowledge 
is diffused among men, but only those who are born with 
a happy genius seize and imbibe it, while those who are 
destitute of genius are uninfluenced ; impudence was 
denoted by a fly, because this insect, when driven away, 
persists in returning ; an impossibility was denoted by 
the feet of a man walking on the water, or by a man 
walking without a head ; strength was denoted by the 
fore-parts of a lion. 

It is still more to our purpose, however, that the 
Egyptians made use of symbolic institutions as well as 
of symbolic writing. Their temples were so constructed 
and furnished, the rites performed in them were so 
ordained, the priests were so habited, as to express to the 
senses the doctrines of their religion. This being indis- 
putable, and universally conceded, it seems probable that 
the sanctuary of the Hebrews, with its equipments and 
services, also had some symbolic significance ; for they 
had been long resident where this mode of representing 
ideas obtained, and Moses especially was learned in all 



THE TABERNACLE WAS SIGNIFICANT. 



the wisdom of the Egyptians. Moreover, though the 
religion of the Egyptians was the very opposite of that 
of the Hebrews in idea, recognizing no unity in the 
divine nature except as it was impersonal, and no per- 
sonality except as resolved into infinite multiplicity, 
while that of the Hebrews had for its first principle the 
unity, personality, and holiness of the Being whom they 
worshipped under the name of Jehovah, there were 
points of similitude in their outward forms ; for the 
Egyptians not only used symbols, but, in many cases, 
symbols having close resemblance to Hebrew Usages. 
In view of this resemblance, one is still more inclined to 
believe that the forms of the Hebrew religion had a 
symbolic significance ; that, if circumcision among the 
Egyptians was an outward sign with a spiritual meaning, 
so was it among the Hebrews ; that, if the white raiment 
and frequent ablutions of the Egyptian priests had a 
significance additional to that of physical cleanliness, so 
were the official garments and ceremonial washings 
prescribed for Aaron likewise symbolic. 

Such a belief would not imply the least degree of 
mistrust that the younger institution had borrowed any 
of the ideas symbolized in the older, or even that it had 
any in common with it, except so far as two systems of 
religion may have some ideas in common, though diverse 
in their fundamental principles. It is said that the press 
once employed in printing the malignant and scurrilous 
productions of Thomas Paine has since been used for 
the dissemination of Christian literature. Whether this 
is true, or not, it would at least be possible to use not 
only the same press, but the same font of types, for such 
different and opposite purposes. The types which once 



SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



served the purpose of the enemy of Christ might be put 
into new combinations, and serve equally well the pur- 
pose of his friends. So some of the symbols employed 
in the religion of Egypt may have been used by Moses 
in the representation of the very different ideas which 
Jehovah through him communicated to the Hebrews. 

The resemblance between the forms of the two religions 
will appear from a comparison of the sacred arks of the 
Egyptians with the ark of testimony constructed for 
the tabernacle. When carried in procession, they were 
borne on the shoulders of the priests by means of staves, 
which were not drawn out, but remained in place, when 
the ark was at rest. They were sometimes surmounted 
by winged figures similar to the cherubs which over- 
shadowed the sacred shrine of the Hebrews. They 
differed, at least in many instances, from the ark of 
Jehovah in having a boat beneath, and a canopy above. 

With such resemblance in mind between the forms of 
the two religions, the probability seems very great, that 
if, in the religion of the Egyptians, these forms were 
symbols representing severally single ideas, and in com- 
bination a system of ideas, so were they also in that of 
the Hebrews who had so long resided in Egypt. If 
any thing could increase this probability, it would be to 
find a similar use of symbols among other nations of 
remote antiquity ; so that when we learn that the eagle- 
headed human figures, and the human-headed figures 
of lions and bulls, found at Nineveh, were emblematic of 
ideas in the religious system of the Assyrians, — a 
system as old, and, as Layard claims, older, than that 
of Egypt, 1 — we cannot doubt that such a mode of repre- 

1 Nineveh and its Remains. New York, 1849. Vol. ii. p. 333. 



THE TABERNACLE WAS SIGNIFICANT 135 

senting religious ideas was characteristic of the age of 
Moses, and that he made use of it as naturally as a 
religious teacher in our day uses the printing-press for 
the inculcation of his sentiments. 

But, if the Mosaic institutions were symbolically sig- 
nificant, we should expect to find in the Jewish writings, 
both inspired and uninspired, some tokens that they 
were so regarded. Such evidence is not wanting, and 
we propose to produce it in confirmation of the argu- 
ment derived from the usage of the age. The evidence 
is more direct and positive in writings of a later date 
than in the Old Testament ; and the reason doubtless 
is that, in the centuries preceding the advent of Christ, 
symbolic representations spoke for themselves, and in a 
language which every one could understand. There 
was no more need for Moses to say, " This tabernacle, with 
its equipments, its priesthood, and its services, repre- 
sents invisible things," than for Landseer to put a label 
under one of his paintings to inform the beholder that 
it was designed to be a picture of a horse. We may 
believe that Moses, learned as he was in all the wisdom 
of the Egyptians, could of himself have represented, in 
this the language of his age, the truths he was commis- 
sioned to convey, so as to be understood by those who 
were acquainted with the language. But he was not 
left to do it of himself : the symbols themselves, as well 
as the truths they exhibited, were communicated to him 
on Sinai ; so that infinite wisdom is responsible not only 
for the truth inculcated, but for the perfect use of the 
vehicle with which it was conveyed. The tabernacle 
being, then, in itself a revelation of religious ideas in the 



136 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

language in which such ideas were usually communi- 
cated, it is not to be expected that the revelation would 
be accompanied with the declaration of itself in another 
kind of language. As a man who speaks to another 
viva voce does not waste his time in saying, " I am 
speaking to you ; " so it is not necessary for the author 
of a symbolic representation to inform those who are 
skilled in the language of symbols that he is now 
employing that language. 1 

In looking to Jewish authors for evidence that the 
Mosaic institutions were regarded as symbolic, it may be 
advisable to begin with such as have written since the 
Christian era. These would be more likely to speak 
directly to the point than those who lived while symbolic 
representation was still in vogue. We find, then, that 
the commentators of the Talmud agree in regarding the 
tabernacle, and all connected with it, as a system of 
symbols ; and, whatever absurdities they may be guilty 
of in their attempts to interpret, their testimony is not 
without value ; for, though they had lost the true inter- 
pretation, they had retained the tradition that there was 
a mystery, a deeper meaning than appeared to the 
senses, in the now abrogated ceremonial of their fathers. 
Josephus and Philo, writers of an earlier date, also tes- 
tify that the tabernacle was a symbol both in its integrity 

i From the same stand-point, one may see also why Moses says so little in pho- 
netic language of the great truths symbolically conveyed in the institutions he 
established. Having made his choice between the two languages, or, to speak 
more correctly, having been directed to employ the symbolic as the more impress- 
ive and the more easily understood, he did not translate into the other, because, 
so far as the people of his day were concerned, it would have been useless. They 
were but children, and could understand the picture much better than the state- 
ment of the truth by means of characters or sounds with which it has no natural 
correspondence 

12 



THE TABERNACLE WAS SIGNIFICANT. 



and in its parts ; Philo being, so far as is known, the 
father of that interpretation which makes the tabernacle 
a microcosm, and Josephus being in this respect his 
disciple. 

Passing now into the centuries before the Christian 
era, and questioning the canonical and apocryphal 
writers of the Old Testament, we fine}, as has been 
already observed, that they do not testify so directly to 
the point as Philo, Josephus, and the rabbies of the 
Gemara, but that circumstantial evidence is, neverthe- 
less, to be found in their writings of the truth of our 
position. We postpone the exhibition of this in detail 
till there is occasion to use the Old Testament for the 
purpose of interpretation ; only observing at present, to 
illustrate what kind of evidence is intended, that forms 
of expression are transferred from the rites of the taber- 
nacle to religious experience, as if there were such a 
correspondence between the outward and the inward 
that the language of the former might be unconsciously 
used by one who had in mind only spiritual transactions 
with God. For example : David says, " Purge me with 
hyssop, and I shall be clean," 1 as if hyssop were a 
symbol of purification. Again he says, " Thou desirest 
not sacrifice ; else would I give it : thou delightest not 
in burnt-offering: the sacrifices of God are a broken 
spirit : a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt 
not despise," 2 as if a sacrifice signified contrition, and 
would be a mockery without it. We pass over, for the 
present, all other evidence from the Old Testament, to 
examine, last of all, the New Testament on the question 
at issue. 



i Ps. li. 7. 



2 Ps. li. 16-17. 



138 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



It appears that in the time of Christ the language of 
symbols had not entirely passed out of use, since it was 
largely employed in revealing to one of his twelve apos- 
tles " things which must shortly come to pass." The 
visions of the Apocalypse are scenic representations 
which had one meaning when literally understood, and 
another when regarded as figures of the real things they 
represented. We see evidence, however, in the Book 
itself, that symbolic writing was becoming obsolete ; for 
here and there hints are given to assist the persecuted 
church in the interpretation of the visions, but not 
enough to open them to the comprehension of its ene- 
mies. As the Apocalypse of John needed such accom- 
panying hints to point toward its true interpretation, 
because the symbolic had been to a great extent super- 
seded by the phonetic, and had become almost a dead 
language, so for the same reason there was occasion for 
direct testimony in the New Testament to the figurative 
significance of the Mosaic institutions. When the books 
of the Old Testament were written, it was not necessary 
that one who used the language of symbols should give 
notice that he was doing so, or become his own interpre- 
ter ; but in the time of the apostles there might be many 
who without help would not only be unable to interpret 
the Mosaic institutions, but even fail to apprehend that 
a figurative meaning was concealed within the outward 
shell. 

The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, therefore, 
when, with the design of confirming Israelites who had 
become Christians in their new faith, he had occasion to 
compare it with Mosaism, expressly declares that the 
outward institutions of the latter were symbols setting 



THE TABERNACLE WAS SIGNIFICANT 139 

forth to the eye of sense ideas which had now been ful- 
filled in Christianity ; and shows at considerable length 
how the two systems correspond one with the other. In 
presence of such proof, a Christian can no more hesitate 
to believe that the tabernacle had a symbolic significance, 
than if he were familiar with the language in which it 
inculcated the truths common to Mosaism and Chris- 
tianity. 

The language of symbols furnishes to one who is 
acquainted with it convincing proof that the tabernacle 
was designed to inculcate religious truth in that lan- 
guage. This was the evidence which the contemporaries 
of Moses had to such an extent that they needed no 
other. A perfect mastery of the language is now impos- 
sible : it may be, however, so far acquired and read in 
the Mosaic institutions, that one can have no more doubt 
that they were designed to communicate the ideas he 
receives from them than if he were perusing printed 
pages. If the reader is not already convinced, there is 
hope that he may become so when he sees how symbols 
of single ideas are here articulated into a complete and 
symmetrical body of truth, as the letters of the alphabet 
are put together to form the syllables, words, and sen- 
tences of a book. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE TABERNACLE SYMBOLIZED THE TRUTHS OF THE 
MOSAIC REVELATION. 

If the tabernacle was designed to represent, and incul- 
cate upon the Israelites, a system of religious ideas, it is 
natural to infer that it represented the system commu- 
nicated through Moses. It is scarcely possible that a 
system of ideas, and a system of symbols, communi- 
cated from the same source, to the same people, through 
the same mediator, at the same time, should not corre- 
spond one with the other. 

What, then, were the truths revealed through Moses, 
and represented in the tabernacle and its appurtenances ? 
We have the means, outside of the symbolic institutions, 
of acquainting ourselves with the principal features of 
the Mosaic system, and, in doing so, of establishing a 
line of interpretation with which we must keep parallel 
in all attempts to fix the meaning of particular symbols. 
If, for example, it were suggested that the two cherubs 
on the ark of the covenant should be interpreted accord- 
ing to Egyptian ideas, as symbols of two deities, one 
male and the other female, the Decalogue instantly 
extinguishes the suggestion as inconsistent with its first 
and second requirements. 

The truths which God taught through Moses in 
140 



THE TABERNACLE SYMBOLIZED MOSAISM. 141 



regard to himself are characteristic features of the revela- 
tion made at Sinai, and, as they are specially important 
for the end we have in view, should be held in remem- 
brance as we search for the significance either of the 
tabernacle as a whole, or of its particular parts. 

Foremost of these truths was the unity of God. 
Monotheism, though not then first made known to the 
Hebrews, was distinctly proclaimed as a fundamental 
article of their religion. They had received it from 
Abraham, who, as a witness for it, went out from his 
country, and his father's family, to spend his life among 
strangers, and leave to his posterity no landed inherit- 
ance save " the field, and the cave which was therein, 
and all the trees which were in the field," 1 purchased as 
a burying-place for himself and his family. But they 
had so long lived among the idolatrous Egyptians that 
a new affirmation of the unity of God was needed to 
keep alive their ancestral faith, and deepen it in their 
convictions and affections beyond the possibility of eradi- 
cation. Accordingly God commences his communication 
to the Hebrews at Sinai with a requirement that he 
shall be the only object of their worship. " I am/' he 
says, " Jehovah thy God, which have brought thee out of 
the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou 
shalt have no other gods in my presence." 2 Afterward, 
when they were soon to enter the promised land, 
Moses was directed to remind them that " Jehovah is 
God, and there is none else beside him," 3 and to 
proclaim, " Hear, O Israel : Jehovah our God is one 
Jehovah." 4 

1 Gen. xxiii. 17. 2 Exod. xx. 2, 3. 3 Deut. iv : 35. 

4 Deut. vi. 4. This was one of the passages which the Jews were accustomed 
to write on the door-posts of their houses. See Thomson, The Land and the 
Book. New York, 1859. Vol. i. p. 141. 



SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



Another important truth which the Mosaic system 
taught concerning God was his personality. Even 
among the heathen, the more thoughtful and learned 
conceived of something superior to their numerous 
deities ; of one, or else of two antagonistic powers, 
by which all things were controlled. But those who 
believed in one supreme power conceived of it as inca- 
pable of intelligence, of emotion, of will, of self-respect, 
of sympathy and fellowship with others. It was an 
important peculiarity, therefore, of the religion of the 
Hebrews, that it attributed to the only object of their 
worship, personality. Jehovah was in their conception 
the living God, a Spirit, " the God of the spirits of all 
flesh." 1 The word "Jehovah" was a proper name, the 
name of a person. It was not only a proper name, but 
it had a meaning which of itself asserted personality. 
It was implied, in the very name / am, that what it rep- 
resented was capable of speaking in the first person, 
and by consequence possessed of all the attributes of a 
spirit. These attributes are everywhere implied in what 
is affirmed of Jehovah. He is represented as not only 
powerful, but intelligent; as susceptible of love and 
hatred, of jealousy and compassion ; as having plans, and 
a determination to execute them ; as entering into cove- 
nant and fellowship with men. " The idea of God in 
the Jewish Church was the very reverse of a negation 
or an abstraction." 2 They thought of him as a living 
Being who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, 
out of the house of bondage, with a high hand and an 
outstretched arm ; whose eyes were ever upon them. 

1 Num. xxvii. 16. 

2 Stanley, Jewish Church. New York, 1867. Vol. i. p. 169. 



THE TABERNACLE SYMBOLIZED MO S A ISM. 143 

Still another of this group of ideas was the holiness 
of God. The heathen conceived of their deities as devi- 
ating more or less frequently from the line of rectitude. 
No such dishonor could be imputed to the God of the 
Hebrews. He gloried in his freedom from it, and 
required that they should in this respect resemble him. 
'< Speak," he said, " to all the congregation of the chil- 
dren of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy, for I 
Jehovah, your God, am holy." 1 They also gloried in 
this distinctive attribute of their deity, and sang, " Who 
is like unto thee, O Jehovah, among the gods ? Who is 
like thee, glorious in holiness ? " 2 This attribute was 
something more, however, than mere freedom from the 
defilement of actual wrong : it was an intense love of 
right, and hatred of wrong, evincing itself in law and 
government, reward and penalty. 

Next after these annunciations in regard to God, one 
may mention, as a prominent and characteristic feature 
of the Mosaic system, that covenant between Jehovah 
and the Hebrews, which, through the mediation of 
Moses, was not only revealed as an idea, but established 
as a fact. He who thus united in himself the eternity 
and omnipotence from which all existence originated, — 
the intelligence, emotions, and will of personality, — and 
the most intense partisanship in favor of right as against 
wrong, brought Israel out of Egypt to Sinai, and there 
entered into special relations with them, involving mutual 
engagements. 

By an examination of the covenant, we discover that 
God's choice of the Hebrews was at its foundation. 
This election had been manifested, indeed, centuries 



1 Lev. xix. 2. 



2 Exod. xv. 11. 



SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



before, in the time of Abraham their ancestor, with 
whom he entered into a covenant, promising to be a God 
to him and to his seed ; and engaging him to be a 
witness for the unity of God against the prevalent hea- 
thenism. That election was now manifested anew in the 
calling of the children of Abraham out of Egypt to 
receive at Sinai the revelations, institutions, and laws 
which he gave them by the hand of Moses. 

The covenant established with the Hebrews at Sinai 
was substantially the same in its terms as that which 
God made with Abraham. Jehovah promised to be their 
God, and put them under engagement to be his people. 
This agreement involved several particulars on either 
side. 

The people on their part covenanted to be holy. They 
promised to keep the commands written on the two 
tables of testimony, and to observe the positive institu- 
tions with which they were accompanied. Their consent 
to become the covenant people of Jehovah bound them 
to obedience as respects not only duties which are of 
universal and eternal obligation, but all required observ- 
ances. The holiness demanded was absolute freedom 
from transgression, designed or undesigned, conscious 
or unconscious. 

Their covenant God on his part engaged to be their 
deliverer. He had already broken the yoke of their ser- 
vitude, and now engaged to be their guide through the 
perils of the wilderness, till he should bring them to the 
land promised to their fathers, — a good land flowing with 
milk and honey, — and establish them in the possession 
of it. He introduces the requirements which he makes 
of them as his people with the annunciation of himself 



THE TABERNACLE SYMBOLIZED MO S A ISM. 145 

as their deliverer. 1 "I am Jehovah, thy God, which 
have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the 
house of bondage." 2 By this declaration he invites their 
confidence in his ability and readiness to deliver when- 
ever and in whatever respect deliverance might be 
needed. He engaged to forgive their sins. He was 
holy, but nevertheless gracious. He would by no means 
clear those whom he was under obligation to punish ; 
but he was disposed to pardon whenever pardon was 
consistent with right. He proclaimed himself " merciful 
and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness 
and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving ini- 
quity, transgression, and sin ; and that will by no means 
clear the guilty ; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon 
the children, and upon the children's children, unto the 
third and fourth generation." 3 

These prominent ideas of the Mosaic revelation 
establish a line with which we must keep parallel in all 
attempts to interpret its symbolic institutions. The 
tabernacle represented Mosaism in distinction from hea- 
thenism on the one hand, and Christianity on the other. 
If the Hebrew religion differed from that of Egypt, the 
significance of the tabernacle is to be found in the doc- 
trines of the former, and not of the latter. So also, if 
the system of Moses was not identical with that of 
Christ, the symbolic institutions established at Sinai 
represent the Mosaic, in distinction from the Christian 
system. 

1 M™M regards the idea of God as a deliverer as the fundamental idea of the 
Hebrew religion. Geschichte des Volkes Israel. Translation. Vol. ii. p. 109. 

2 Exod. xx. 2, 3. 

3 Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7. 



146 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

That the Hebrew religion was radically different from 
any other prevalent at the time of the exodus, instantly 
appears to one who, being already acquainted with the 
Egyptian and other ancient systems, turns his eye even 
for a single glance at the prominent features of the 
Mosaic revelation. The' nations of antiquity had each 
its religious system, and represented it in symbol ; but 
until Jehovah revealed himself on Sinai, and showed to 
Moses the pattern of the tabernacle^ symbolic institu- 
tions, however different in themselves and in the ideas 
they represented, certainly were polytheistic. As such 
they belonged to one family, and were all radically dif- 
ferent from those of the Hebrews, which could not have 
inculcated a multiplicity of deities because the Hebrew 
idea of the unity of God is utterly intolerant of such 

teaching. ( "'■ 

It will serve our purpose if we take the religion ot 
Egypt as a representative of ancient heathenism, and 
show that its ideas were so adverse to those of Mosaism 
as to involve the certainty that the tabernacle did not 
stand for the same or even for similar ideas as the 
symbolic institutions of Egypt. Egypt will suffice : for 
however its religion differed from that of Assyria or 
other ancient nations, it belonged, as has been said, to 
the same class ; and it will best serve our purpose because 
of the close connection between the Egyptians and the 
Hebrews when the two nations dwelt together on the 
same soil. 

This close connection naturally suggests the supposi- 
tion, that as both nations made use of symbols in the 
utterance of religious thought, and, to some extent at 
least, of similar forms of symbolization, there may have 



THE TABERNACLE SYMBOLIZED MO S A ISM. 147 

been some resemblance in the ideas inculcated by the 
two systems respectively. The fact that Moses was 
learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, gives addi- 
tional plausibility to the supposition that he adopted 
substantially the views of his teachers. 

That there was a resemblance between the two reli- 
gions, in some of their symbols, is undeniable. Some 
instances of it have been given in the preceding chapter. 
But this does not necessarily imply a similarity of ideas. 
As the same words may be employed by writers of oppo- 
site sentiments, so the same symbols may be used in 
different and adverse systems. To show that the 
Hebrew religion had no affinity with that of Egypt, it will 
be sufficient to compare two or three prominent features 
of the latter with- the former, as already sketched. 

The Hebrew conceived of God as a spirit, separate 
from, and superior to, the universe he had created out of 
nothing, and was governing by his power. The educated 
Egyptian was a pantheist, identifying God with nature, 
and thus leaving out of his conception whatever belongs 
to personality. The power everywhere manifest in 
nature, he thought of as inherent in nature itself, and 
incapable of consciousness and will. 

The God of the Hebrews would allow no rivals. It 
was not sufficient that his people should acknowledge 
him as a deity : they must have no other gods. He 
claimed that he was the only living God, and required 
that they who worshipped him should worship him as 
such. But the impersonal power which the Egyptian 
conceived of as above and behind all things could have 
no such jealousy ; and so the Egyptian system had a 
multitude of inferior deities representing perhaps, origi- 



l 4 8 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

nally, particular powers of nature, but conceived of by the 
common people in obedience to a demand of their spir- 
itual nature as spirits. These inferior deities divided 
among themselves the dominion of the country; each 
having his particular city or district where was the chief 
seat of his worship, but not to the exclusion of the 
others, for in the most fraternal spirit he admitted his 
fellow gods and goddesses to a participation with him in 
his temple, and in the regard of his people. 

The God of the Hebrews would allow no images of 
himself. But every Egyptian deity who had a temple 
was represented in it by an image which usually com- 
bined parts of the human body, and of one or more 
animals. Occupying the principal place of honor in 
the temple, it was surrounded by many similar represen- 
tations of other deities. These images were originally 
regarded, and perhaps always by those who were learned 
in & the wisdom of the Egyptians, as symbols ; but the 
people in general failed to grasp the meaning of the sym- 
bol, and conceived of a god having an outward shape like 
that which they saw. 

We need not further delineate the two systems. The 
antagonism between them is already so apparent as to 
forbid the supposition that Moses intended to inculcate 
in the symbolic institutions he established substantially 
the same ideas as were represented in the symbolic lan- 
guage and institutions of the country in which he was 
born and reared. He followed the custom of his time in 
employing symbols for the purpose of communicating 
ideas • but the ideas he was charged to communicate 
were 'essentially different from those of ancient hea- 
thenism in general, and of the Egyptian religion in 



THE TABERNACLE SYMBOLIZED MOSAJSM. 149 



particular, and not only different, but as antagonistic as 
light is to darkness. 

But if Mosaism is to be distinguished, on the one side, 
from the heathenism which preceded and was contem- 
porary with it, so must it be, on the other side, from the 
dispensation which it prepared the way for, and ushered 
in. There is, indeed, no contrariety between the ideas 
of Moses and those of Christ ; for they received their 
commissions from the same source, and were both faith- 
ful — the former as a servant, and the latter as a son — to 
Him who sent them. There is no difference between the 
Old and New Testaments in principle, but only in 
the stage of development at which they present the 
divine plan of redemption.- As there is a difference not 
to be overlooked between a mature man and the same 
person as he was when an infant, or between an infant 
and the same being as he was when an embryo; so there 
is a difference of development between Christianity and 
Mosaism, which must not be forgotten in the interpre- 
tation of the tabernacle. 

It was the true religion in distinction from heathenism 
which was symbolized in the edifice, the furniture, the 
priesthood, the services, and the calendar of the tab- 
ernacle ; but it was truth from the stand-point of Moses, 
and not of Christ. The outward ordinances of the 
Hebrew religion were for the benefit of that nation from 
the time of Moses onward to the advent of Christ ; after 
which time they were inappropriate, as not rightly 
representing the true religion in its recent stage of 
development. Revealed truth, having passed beyond its 
period of immaturity, rejected these institutions of its 
earlier years as a person puts away childish things when 
13* 



150 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

he becomes a man. They passed away, however, not 
because they were symbols, but because they were sym- 
bols of a stage of revelation which had given place to a 
later and brighter exhibition of the glory of God in the 
salvation of men. The writers of the New Testament 
had no objection to the use of symbolic language. The 
Apocalypse is partly written in that dialect; and the 
symbols of the Old Testament are often referred to as 
illustrative of the truths of Christianity. The two 
dispensations of the same religion had so much in com- 
mon that the later could use the language of the earlier, 
but only because it had some of the same ideas to 
express. The symbolic institutions of Moses belonged 
primarily to the Mosaic, and not to the Christian 
dispensation, and can be used by the latter only because 
it is the same religion in a later stage of development. 

This view is different from that which has been gen- 
erally entertained ; the reference of the tabernacle to an 
existing dispensation having been overlooked by Chris- 
tian expositors searching for a prophetic significance in 
the Hebrew institutions. The Mosaic symbols were 
undoubtedly prophetic of the truths of Christianity, but 
only as they were symbols of the truths of an existing 
dispensation confessedly incomplete. They were secon- 
darily types or prophetic symbols, but only as they were 
primarily symbols. 

No Christian writer has denied that the old dispensa- 
tion contained types of the new : but there has been a 
wide difference of opinion as to the extent of such 
typical connection ; some confining it to such points as 
are expressly mentioned in the New Testament, and 
others finding types wherever any resemblance could 



THE TABERNACLE SYMBOLIZED MOSAISM. 151 

be seen or imagined between the two dispensations. 
Believing that the tabernacle was secondarily typical, 
but only as it was first symbolic, it is our intention to 
devote the next chapter to its typical significance ; but 
at present we leave out of view the reference which it 
really had to Christianity, in order to maintain that 
primarily it referred to the system of Moses, and not of 
Christ. 

This is evident from the custom of the age in which 
Moses lived. The Egyptians represented and inculcated 
the ideas of their religion in outward forms and transac- 
tions. So did the Assyrians. It is reasonable to infer 
that Moses wished to teach, by means of the ritual he 
established, not only his own system in distinction from 
those of heathenism, but his own system as it then was 
in distinction from what it was to become by subsequent 
progress. It is natural to believe that what he taught 
symbolically, corresponded with what he taught phoneti- 
cally. We can discover no reason for leaving unuttered, 
or unwritten, that which was represented to the eye. 

He had a system of religious truth to communicate to 
the Hebrews, containing all that their spiritual necessi- 
ties required ; revealing the nature and character of God, 
the fact of a covenant relation between God and them, 
with provision for the pardon and restoration of the 
penitent transgressor, and for the excision of the wilfully 
and persistently disobedient. Did he not, when teaching 
by word of mouth, communicate to them substantially 
the same system which was pictured in the edifice, the 
furniture, the priesthood, the services, and the calendar 
of their worship ? 

We need not, as Christians, be jealous of admitting 



152 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



this : we can find place afterward for the truths of 
Christianity in a secondary significance of the taber- 
nacle, — a significance well established on its primary 
meaning as a foundation. To ignore or deny the pri- 
mary reference of it to the system of Moses, would 
attribute to him a departure from the prevalent custom 
of inculcating upon men, by means of symbols, the 
religious system under which they were to live. 

The primary reference of the tabernacle to the Mosaic, 
in distinction from the Christian dispensation, is further 
evident from the spiritual condition of the Hebrews. 
There was then so little spirituality in the world, so little 
receptivity for the truths of the gospel, that a people 
must be separated from the rest of mankind, brought 
under severe and protracted training, and thus educated 
till they should become capable of apprehending the 
glad tidings of salvation by Christ. The chosen people, 
when brought out of Egypt, could receive only the rudi- 
ments of the gospel. Their religious thought and 
experience were in so low a plane, that they would not 
have been able to understand or improve the larger 
revelations afterward made. They needed to receive 
the truths of Christianity by degrees, beginning with so 
much as was revealed through Moses at Sinai. 

Such being the spiritual condition of the Hebrews, 
did they not need aid in the study of the dispensation 
under which they lived, and in the reception of its truths 
into their religious life, similar to that which their 
contemporaries found in the outward representations 
provided for them by their religious instructors ? There is 
abundant evidence, in the history of the Hebrews during 
the forty years in the wilderness, that they found the 



THE TABERNACLE SYMBOLIZED MOSAISM. 153 

religion taught by Moses somewhat too spiritual, and 
that they easily revolted from their holy and invisible 
God to worship the idols of the nations around them. 
Is it not improbable that such a people would be left to 
study, and digest into spiritual nutriment, the revelation 
made to them of truths so high and remote from the 
ordinary course of their thoughts, without the customary 
aids to religious meditation and worship ? Is it not still 
more improbable that they would be left without such 
help in the use of their own system, and at the same 
time burdened with a ritual which prefigured a system 
even more difficult of comprehension than their own? 
Does it not seem that the tabernacle, as an exponent 
of Christianity, would be useless to the contemporaries of 
Moses ; but, as a scenic representation of the truths 
revealed through him, would be well adapted to fix 
them in the mind, and render them influential upon 
the life ? 

The primary reference of the tabernacle to the truths 
revealed through Moses, in distinction from those after- 
ward to be made known, is still further evident from the 
design of Mosaism as a preparatory dispensation. The 
Hebrew Scriptures speak of a new covenant to be estab- 
lished in the future ; and the apostle, referring to that 
ancient promise, argues that, if the first covenant had 
been faultless, no place would have been sought for the 
second. 1 The Mosaic dispensation was established not 
as a permanent arrangement, but as a preparation for 
Christianity, — a schoolmaster to bring the Hebrews to 
Christ. The chosen people were not only to be educated 
to the capability of receiving a better system than that 

1 Heb. viii. 7. 



SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



of Moses, but his system was itself designed to be a 
means of that education. Such being its design, we 
might reasonably infer that it would not attempt to teach 
the whole truth in its outward ordinances, but only some 
rudiments, the mastery of which might enable its pupils 
to go on to perfection. The preparatory dispensation 
must be more simple, and more easy of comprehension, 
than that to which it is ancillary. Such it was, if its out- 
ward ordinances had primary reference to the kingdom of 
God in that stage of development to which it had then 
arrived ; but such it was not, if they had no other 
design than to prefigure the work of Christ, and its 
results, as they are patent in our day. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE TABERNACLE TYPIFIED THE TRUTHS OF 
CHRISTIANITY. 

In maintaining that the tabernacle symbolized pri- 
marily the truths revealed through Moses, we have not 
denied that it had also some designed reference to 
Christ and Christianity. On the contrary, we have 
been seeking a good foundation on which to build an 
argument for its typical significance. The author of 
the Epistle to the Hebrews so clearly affirms that the 
verities of the new, are foreshadowed in the outward 
ordinances of the old dispensation, that no one can 
gainsay it without impeaching the authority of the New 
Testament ; but, as has already been intimated, there 
is a wide difference of opinion respecting the extent 
to which this typical relation reaches, or can be known to 
reach. 

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, theolo- 
gians were disposed to regard as a type every thing in 
the old dispensation which seemed to resemble, however 
slightly, something in the new. By this mode of inter- 
pretation, types were multiplied till every person, event, 
and institution, antecedent to Christ, had its counterpart 
in him ; the luxuriant fancy of successive typologists 
adding to the catalogue, till at length the resemblances 



156 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

were so far-fetched as scarcely to justify one in speak- 
ing of the earlier thing as an allegory of the later, much 
less in believing that God intended the first simply as a 
representation or picture for our instruction in regard to 
the second. 

The easiest and probably the most effectual method 
of illustrating this style of interpretation is to give an 
example of it. This we propose to do by transferring 
to these pages, from the treatise of Lund, a part of 
his interpretation of the furniture of the tabernacle. 
This writer is selected not on account of any unusual 
exuberance of fancy, but because the scholarship and 
common-sense evinced in his work show that the style of 
typology we wish to illustrate was not confined to men 
deficient in learning, or in good judgment in regard to 
other matters. 

Commencing with the ark of the covenant, he explains 
minutely how every article in the tabernacle and its court 
prefigured Christ. For the sake of brevity, we shall 
follow him only through the holy of holies, and shall 
omit from his statement all that is superfluous. 1 

Of the ark of the covenant, he says, " that as it was 
made of wood, and covered with gold, thus consisting 
of two materials, one ordinary and the other exceed- 
ingly precious, so Christ has two natures, the human 
and the divine, the former represented by the wood, and 
the latter by the gold ; which two natures, however, make 
only one Christ, as the wood and the gold, one ark. 
The acacia was a very durable wood, not liable to decay 
like other species of timber, and was in this respect a 
type of the body of Christ, which, though laid in the 

1 Book I. ch. xxii. 



THE TAB I RA r A CLE TYPIFIED CHRISTIANITY. 157 

grave, was not suffered to see corruption. The ark had 
a border of gold around its lid : so Christ was crowned 
with glory and honor. Within the ark were the two 
tablets of the law ; and Christ says, ' I delight to do thy 
will, O my God ; yea, thy law is within my heart.' Over 
the ark was its, lid, covering the tablets : so Christ 
covers all our sins which we have committed against 
the law. This lid was called the mercy-seat, because 
God was here enthroned above his covered law as a God 
of mercy ; but Christ is the true mercy-seat, since it is 
through him that God is reconciling the world to him- 
self, not imputing to them their sins. From the mercy- 
seat God communed with Moses : through Christ he 
communes with us. The ark, with the mercy-seat which 
covered it, was the place where God dwelt : in Christ 
dwells all the fulness of the Godhead. Over the ark 
were two cherubs, turning their faces toward the mercy- 
seat as if in wonder and delight : so the angels are said 
to study with interest the work of Christ in the redemp- 
tion of men. The ark had four rings, one on each of its 
corners, by means of which it was carried from place to 
place as the people journeyed in the wilderness : so 
Christ through the preaching of his gospel is carried 
into the four quarters of the world. When the ark was 
borne around the city of Jericho, the walls fell down, and 
the city was destroyed : Christ appeared, and is carried 
around the world, through the preaching of the gospel, 
that he may destroy the works of the Devil. The ark 
was captured by the Philistines, and came into the hands 
of the Gentiles : so Christ was captured in Gethsemane, 
and delivered to the Gentile Pilate. The ark was not 
recaptured by the children of Israel, but left in the 
14 



158 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

hands of the Philistines : so his disciples left Christ in 
the power of his enemies ; they forsook him, and fled. 
Although the ark was captured, yet such great signs 
and wonders were wrought by it that the Philistines were 
forced to confess that the God of the Israelites was more 
mighty than their Dagon : so Christ, though surrounded, 
captured, and bound by his enemies, still gave tokens of 
the almighty power which inhered in him, striking to the 
earth by the mere declaration ' I am he,' those who came 
to arrest him ; replacing instantly the ear of Malchus, 
which the over-hasty Peter had cut off ; shaking the 
earth, and darkening the heavens, as he expired on the 
• cross, till the heathen centurion was forced to exclaim, 
< Truly this man was the Son of God.' Although the 
ark was sometime in captivity, the Philistines could not 
hold it, but were obliged against their will to let it go, 
and to send it back with presents : so the powers of 
evil, having taken Christ, and wrought their will upon 
him even to crucifixion and burial, could not hold him in 
the grave ; for against their will he has risen from the 
dead, broken their bands, and triumphed over them by 
means of the very cross on which they caused him to 
be hung. Toward the ark, or toward the place where 
the ark was, must those turn themselves who wished to 
be heard in prayer; in like manner must we, if we 
wish to offer acceptable supplication, turn toward the 
heavenly ark of the covenant, our Lord Jesus Christ, 
and in his name present our petitions. 

" Not only was the ark of the covenant itself a type of 
Christ, but there were two additional types in the manna, 
and the rod of Aaron, laid up near it for preservation. 

"Concerning the first of these, our Saviour himself 



THE TABERNACLE TYPIFIED CHRISTIANITY. 159 

testified, when the Jews mentioned the manna which 
their fathers ate in the wilderness, that he was the true 
bread from heaven. As the manna came down from 
heaven to earth, so the only-begotten Son of God 
became man. As God gave the manna to the Israelites 
when they murmured and rebelled, so he gave his Son 
to die for us while we were sinners. The manna fell at 
night : so our Lord was born in the night. The manna 
was the food of the children of Israel, wherewith they 
were fed in the wilderness till they arrived in the 
promised land : Christ is the food of his people in the 
wilderness of this world, till they pass the Jordan, and 
arrive in the heavenly Canaan. The manna was white, 
glistening, and in its roundness of a perfect form : so 
Christ is white, that is, innocent and entirely perfect. 
As the manna was much bruised in mortars and mills, so 
Christ was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised 
for our iniquities. The manna was sweet beyond meas- 
ure, and of such universal adaptation that no one needed 
any other food : so Christ to believers is sweeter than 
honey, and suited to the wants of all in all circumstances. 
When the children of Israel first saw manna, they did 
not know what it was, and needed to be taught how to 
use it : so by nature man is ignorant of Christ, and 
needs to be instructed by the Spirit how to feed upon 
him. The manna was measured out to the Hebrews, 
an omer for each person: so faith in Christ is given 
according as God deals to every man the measure of 
faith. The manna was given daily without interruption : 
so Christ is with his people always. The manna was 
laid up for a memorial near the ark of the covenant : so 
Christ has directed that we should eat of his body, and 



160 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

drink of his blood, in the memorial supper. Six days in 
the week they must gather the manna, but on the 
sabbath they might not gather it; but it was already 
gathered, God having given them a double portion on 
the preceding day : so must we here in this world seek 
the Lord Jesus Christ with diligence ; but in the sabbath 
of a blessed eternity we need not seek him any more, 
for we shall have him without painstaking, according to 
the promise, ' To him that overcometh will I give to eat 
of the hidden manna.' 

" That Aaron's rod was a type of Christ, is evident from 
the mode in which the prophecy, 1 There shall come 
forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall 
grow out of his roots,' was fulfilled ; the royal house of 
David having declined so much in fortune that Joseph 
and Mary were in a very humble condition when unex- 
pectedly the promised Son of David appeared like the 
leaves, 1 blossoms, and fruit on the rod of Aaron. As the 
typical rod became green not by virtue of any inward, 
hidden, natural moisture, nor through the co-operation 
of the sun and the earth, but by the mere fiat of 
the Almighty ; so the eternal Son of God became man 
not through ordinary generation, but by the immediate 
intervention of the divine power. No man can under- 
stand how the rod of Aaron sprouted and grew ; neither 
can one comprehend the mystery of the birth of Christ, 
born as he was of a virgin. The miracle of the blos- 
soming rod was wrought in the night ; and in the night 
occurred the miraculous birth of Christ. There were 
three things on the rod of Aaron, after the miracle, which 

l The English version, in representing the rod as bringing forth buds, falls short 
of the Hebrew. Leaves would also be more congruous with the fruit. 



THE TABERNACLE TYPIFIED CHRISTIANITY. 161 

were not there before, — leaves, blossoms, and nuts, 
whereby is prefigured the threefold work of Christ ; the 
fruit typifying his prophetic, the blossoms his sacerdotal, 
and the leaves his kingly office. For, as the leaves of a 
tree afford grateful shade to those who take refuge under 
it, so Christ is the protector of them who acknowledge 
him as king ; as the flowers of the almond-tree are of a 
whitish red or a reddish white, combining two colors, so 
is also Jesus Christ our high-priest white in respect to 
his innocence, and red in respect to his blood that was 
poured out for our sins ; and, as the exquisite kernel of 
the almond lies hidden under its bitter rind and hard 
shell, so the doctrine of Christ, to the flesh bitter and 
harsh, and by many regarded as a hard saying, is to a 
spiritual man, who penetrates to the kernel of the nut, 
very sweet and- pleasant. When the rod of Aaron had 
been sufficiently seen by the children of Israel, it was 
again laid up in the holy of holies before the Lord : so 
Christ its antitype, having been changed by his resurrec- 
tion from the dryness of death into the vigor and beauty 
of life, was seen by his disciples for a sufficient time, 
and then received up into heaven to appear in the pres- 
ence of God for us." 

We are confident that the condensed statement here 
given of the typology of this author does not exaggerate 
or even fully exhibit the excursiveness of his fancy. In 
the abridgment of his paragraphs to sentences, some 
plumes have fallen from the wings of his imagination. 
His interpretation of the significance of the furniture 
of the holy of holies is presented as a sample of the 
lawless typology not of this writer only, but of theo- 
logians generally, in the seventeenth and eighteenth 
14* 



1 62 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

centuries. Wherever they found any point of resem- 
blance between something in the old and something in 
the new dispensation, they called one a type, and the 
other its antitype, even when the resemblance was so far 
removed from the ordinary paths of thought as to excite 
surprise, and move to laughter. 

A reaction necessarily resulted from the excesses of 
this school of interpretation. The resemblances to 
which it called attention were in many cases so recon- 
dite and so odd as to forbid the supposition that God in 
his wisdom had established them as a means of repre- 
senting the truths of his gospel. They seemed to 
furnish a better basis for riddles and conundrums than 
for divinely appointed types. 

Popular opinion in its reaction from error often goes 
to the opposite extreme ; and so in this case it oscillated 
from an excessive typology, to the disposition to ignore 
all types not expressly recognized as such by the 
inspired writers, and even to maintain that the old dis- 
pensation did not prefigure the new, further than its 
typical relation had been expressly declared and unfolded 
in the New Testament. 

This reaction has not yet spent itself ; for in the theo- 
logical literature of the nineteenth century there is 
almost no mention of any other types than those alluded 
to above as indorsed by the pen of inspiration ; and 
many eminent theologians not only ignore all others, but 
maintain that it was never intended that there should be 
prefigurative significance in the old dispensation beyond 
what is particularly indicated and interpreted in the 
Scriptures. 

There is reason, however, to expect another . turn in 



THE TABERNACLE TYPIFIED CHRISTIANITY. 163 

the movement of public opinion, if, indeed, the change 
has not already begun. Let it be granted that the 
tabernacle symbolized Mosaism, and it follows, as a 
necessary consequence, that it prefigured Christianity; 
for Christianity was so infolded in Mosaism, that the 
symbols of the earlier were also types of the later 
dispensation. The nineteenth century rightly rejects the 
redundance and lawlessness of the typology it found in 
vogue, but has been wrong in requiring a biblical warrant 
for every particular type. 

- The writers of the New Testament did not undertake 
to make an exhaustive catalogue of things in the old dis- 
pensation which by divine appointment foreshadowed 
the work of Christ, but selected whatever they had 
occasion to make use of, and introduced it into their 
discourses and epistles, not for the sake of informing 
us what were types, and what were not, but with the 
intent of exhibiting more clearly, by means of pictures 
divinely prepared for the purpose, the truth as it is in 
Jesus. . They saw that the system of Moses was iden- 
tical with Christianity in its root, and different only in 
the degree of development : consequently they regarded 
the symbols of the earlier as also prophetic symbols 
of the later and more glorious dispensation they were 
commissioned to announce and promulgate. 

Truth dwells neither in the childish fancies of the 
ancient typologists, nor in the scepticism and infidelity 
of later times, but in a rational typology founded in 
nature, and regulated by laws almost as definite, inflexi- 
ble, and ascertainable as the laws of language. The 
tabernacle is significant of the truths of Christianity, 
but yields its import not to that faculty of the mind 



4 



l6 4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

which discovers a human profile in the ragged edge of a 
distant precipice, but to that other and more prosaic fac- 
ulty which climbs the mountain, and by close inspection 
and tactual examination learns to conceive of it just as 
it is in reality. The " Old Man of the Mountain " is a 
fiction of the fancy ; but there is nevertheless a true 
"testimony of the rocks," which sober science may 
decipher. 

The outward institutions of Moses were throughout 
typical of Christianity, because they were symbols of an 
existing religious system which infolded in itself that of 
Christ as the sapling contains the tree, and as "the child 
is father of the man/' 

That the institutions established by Moses were sym- 
bols of the ideas he was commissioned to communicate, 
is, we think, already evident from the considerations 
advanced in the last chapter; so that it only remains to 
show that Christianity is essentially the same with 
Mosaism, differing merely in the further development of 
ideas common to both. 

We have already seen that Jehovah revealed himself 
to the Hebrews in his unity, personality, and holiness. 
Are not the teachings of the New Testament, in regard 
to God, coincident with those of the Old? He has, 
indeed, revealed more of his glory under the new than 
under the old dispensation. There was gradual progress 
from Moses to Malachi ; but, at the advent of the long- 
promised Messiah, the germ unfolded itself as the bud 
of a century-plant bursts into a flower. It is the same 
God who spoke to the Hebrews by Moses, and to all 
men by his Son Jesus Christ. It is the same idea of 
God which we find in the teachings of Moses, and in the 
pages of the New Testament 



THE TABERNACLE TYPIFIED CHRISTIANITY. 165 

One of the principal features of the religion which 
Moses gave to the Hebrews was the covenant between 
them and their God. It was, as has been already men- 
tioned, essentially the same as the covenant which God 
made with Abraham ; differing from it mainly in the 
addition of the ceremonial law, which, as the Apostle 
Paul declares, was added "because of transgressions," 
that is, for the discipline of the people into more exact- 
ness of life, and sensitiveness of conscience. The Abra- 
hamic covenant did not become void at the institution 
of the ceremonial law at Sinai, nor yet at the advent of 
Christ, but is still in force, as the apostle just mentioned 
argues in his Epistle to the Galatians. The covenant, 
though modified in its forms by the settlement of the 
Hebrews in the promised land, and afterward by the 
establishment of the promised Seed of Abraham on his 
throne of universal and eternal dominion, is essentially 
one and the same in all ages. Canaan was promised to 
Abraham, but not Canaan alone : he looked for another, 
a better, even a heavenly country. He desired to see the 
day of his illustrious descendant : he saw it, and was 
glad. The New Testament is preferable to the Law 
given by Moses, because unencumbered with a burden- 
some ritual ; nevertheless, along with that burdensome 
ritual, yes, and by means of it, the gospel of forgiveness 
was preached. Both proclaim that without shedding of 
blood there is no remission ; and each provides its sacri- 
fice for sin. The conditions of forgiveness are also the 
same, propitiation being provided only for the contrite. 

Mosaism and Christianity being, then, one and the 
same in their fundamental ideas, it follows that any 
system of institutions which would fitly symbolize 



1 66 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

one would be appropriate to the other. Where the two 
dispensations differed, the symbols would doubtless con- 
form to that which was already in existence ; but even 
so, ideas which are especially characteristic of the later 
dispensation might be represented, being contained rudi- 
mentally in the earlier, as there are rudiments in the 
lower animals of organs which in their perfect develop- 
ment are peculiar to higher families. 

The tabernacle, being constructed to symbolize pri- 
marily the ideas of the Mosaic system, also typified 
Christianity so far as the two were identical in their 
teachings ; and, in addition, typified much that is pecu- 
liar to Christianity, by means of the hints of good things 
to come, involved in the ideas represented. It symbol- 
ized the forgiveness of sins ; it typified the Lamb of God 
which taketh away the sin of the world. 



CHAPTER IV. 



MEANS OF INTERPRETATION. 

At the beginning of the present century, the hiero- 
glyphics of Egypt were known to be significant, but no 
living man was able to read them. The discovery of the 
Rosetta stone, with its polyglot inscription, excited hope 
that it might prove a key to the records of a people of 
remote antiquity, intimately connected with the nation 
which transmitted to us the knowledge of the true God. 
That hope was fulfilled. The glyphs in a cartouch, sup- 
posed to correspond with the name of Ptolemy in the 
Greek translation, were found to be identical with those 
which represented a name in another inscription dis- 
covered about the same time, and accompanied by a 
Greek translation. Fortunately, in this last case, the 
name of Cleopatra followed that of Ptolemy ; so that, by a 
comparison of the letters common to both, the correct- 
ness of the conclusions already reached was confirmed, 
and further progress was made toward an alphabet. By 
degrees, other means of interpretation were found ; and 
these ancient records became again intelligible. 

Having reason to believe that the tabernacle was 
designed to symbolize the truths which Moses was com- 
missioned to teach, may we not hope to find some key 
which shall unlock its significance ? If its true import 

167 



1 68 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



has given place to false interpretations, is it not possible 
to re-establish the truth ? 

Happily, there are means of interpretation by the aid 
of which one may decipher the symbols of the Hebrews 
as correctly as Champollion deciphered the hieroglyphics 
of Egypt ; and the purpose of the present chapter is to 
point out and tabulate them for future use. 

I. First in the table may be placed the parallelism 
between the Mosaic system, as otherwise ascertained, 
and its symbolic representation. 

The tabernacle symbolized the truths which Moses 
was directed to inculcate on the Israelites. Some of 
them, doubtless, were communicated solely by means of 
symbols ; but many are recorded in the Pentateuch in 
language which we can read and understand. The writ- 
ings of Moses, therefore, like the Greek translation of 
the Rosetta stone, give a clew to the meaning of what 
otherwise might be illegible. The other books of the 
Old Testament also record in written language many of 
the ideas represented in the symbolic institutions ; so 
that the whole volume of the Hebrew Scriptures offers 
help to the interpreter. 

By means of this parallelism we learn that the taber- 
nacle as a whole exhibited spiritual transactions between 
the Hebrews and their covenant God. It represented 
his habitation among them, his presence as a defence, 
his reception of their persons and gifts so long as they 
were observant of his ordinances and obedient to his 
commands, his readiness to forgive the penitent sinner, 
and his utter rejection of the persistently disobedient. 

It being granted that such a parallelism exists, we can 



MEANS OF INTERPRETATION". 169 

ascertain by means of it not only the general signifi- 
cance of the whole system of symbols, but the meaning 
of many particular parts. For example: when we look 
at the ritual of the sin-offering, — when we see an animal 
brought into the court of the tabernacle, the person who 
brings it laying his hand on its head, and then slaying 
it, the priest taking some of its blood with his finger, 
putting it on the horns of the altar, pouring out the 
remainder at the base of the altar, burning the fat as a 
sweet savor to Jehovah, and with his companions in the 
consecrated priesthood eating the flesh of the sacrifice 
within the precincts of the holy edifice, — we are not left 
wholly to the spectacle itself for its interpretation. The 
Hebrew Scriptures as a whole, and especially the writ- 
ings of Moses, afford assistance to one who wishes to 
know the meaning of such a transaction. The verbal 
definition itself to some extent explains it. It is a sin- 
offering, a sacrifice for sin. This brief and summary 
explanation may be amplified by collecting the passages 
of Scripture which relate either to the sin-offering itself, 
or to sin as a transgression of law. 

The establishment in the mind of one point of coin- 
cidence between the scenic and the written revelation 
leads on to the determination of a second. For example : 
when one has well studied the sin-offering, and learned 
its significance, he is better prepared to appreciate the 
part which the priest acts in the presentation of it. He 
receives the idea of mediation as represented in the 
scene he has been witnessing, and, having received it, 
finds many passages in the various books of the Old 
Testament which throw additional light upon the office 
of the priesthood. 

15 



170 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

As one discovers more and more points of resem- 
blance, in a good portrait, to the pei son whom it portrays, 
so may he in the symbols of the Hebrews find more and 
more of what is written in their Scriptures. Being at 
last well convinced that a portrait is true to its original, 
one may learn to trust it in respect to features which 
have faded from his memory ; likewise, by diligent study 
of the institutions of Moses, one may acquire some ideas 
not verbally presented either by him or by subsequent 
writers of the Old Testament, or at least not noticed 
till the student had found them in the revelation by 
symbols. But all such interpretation must proceed in 
accordance with the rule that the institutions of Moses 
are parallel with what he has communicated with his 
pen, and must find in the pictorial revelation either the 
same ideas as in the verbal, or else such as are accordant 
and complementary. 

II. Another key of interpretation is found in the 
Scriptural explanation of symbols. 

Moses himself has attached to his pictures no 
exegetical clavis : he doubtless regarded them as suf- 
ficiently intelligible without such an affix. He did not 
call the sin-offering by that appellation in order to explain 
the symbol, but made use of the word incidentally in 
prescribing the ceremonies in which the symbol was to 
consist. There was no needMn his day to translate the 
language of signs into written discourse ; for the former 
was more easily understood than the latter. But, as we 
have heretofore had occasion to remark, there was need, 
in the time of the New-Testament writers, that symbolic 
language should sometimes be accompanied with expla- 
nation ; and accordingly they have in a few instances 



MEANS OF INTERPRETATION. Ijl 

attached definitions to symbols. If, as there is no 
reason to doubt, these definitions are valid for the Old 
Testament, as well as for the New, every one of them is 
a key to some part of the edifice we would explore. 

For example : incense is explained in the Apocalypse 
as symbolizing the prayers of the holy. 1 With less 
clearness the same meaning is suggested in the Gospel 
of Luke, where the people are said to have been engaged 
in prayer while Zacharias was burning incense within 
the temple, 2 and even in the Book of Psalms, where 
David says, " Let my prayer be set forth before thee as 
incense." 3 

With this definition of incense we discover the signifi- 
cance of the sweet odors daily ascending from both 
altars of the tabernacle, and sometimes carried even 
into the holy of holies, as well as of the censers and the 
golden altar. 

For another example : the fine linen of which the 
innermost curtain of the tabernacle, and the robes of the 
priests, were made, is explained in the Apocalypse as 
meaning, when used for garments, that those thus 
arrayed were holy. " The fine linen is the righteous- 
ness of saints." 4 We are thus guided to the conclusion 
that the fine linen which the Hebrews called sites h was 
significant of- purity ; or, rather, we are confirmed in the 
opinion to which we might perhaps have been brought 
independently of such guidance by the suggestions of a 
symbolism founded in nature, and everywhere prevalent. 

III. The design of the tabernacle as "declared in the 
directions for its construction, equipment, and services, 
is a key to its significance. 

1 Rev. v. 8, viii. 3. 2 Luke i. 10. 3 p s . cxli. 2. * R ev . xix. 8. 



172. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



After specifying the materials of which it was to be 
made, Jehovah said, " Let them make me a sanctuary ; 
that I may dwell among them. According to all that 
I show thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the 
pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye 
make it." 1 If the edifice was a symbol, it signified that 
Jehovah dwelt among the Israelites. This sanctuary 
constructed for the purpose, and according to his own 
directions, was his habitation to which the people might 
resort, entering the court iri person, and admitted, 
through their representatives the priests, within the 
habitation itself. Here he dwelt among them as their 
God who had brought them out of Egypt, and by so 
doing given pledge of whatever further deliverance and 
help they might need. Here was the appointed place of 
meeting between him and them, where he would answer 
those who came to make inquiries, receive the offerings 
of those who brought gifts, and bestow tokens of recon- 
ciliation on those whose consciences accused them of 
transgression or neglect. It was his habitation, and yet 
not in the same sense in which a man's house is his 
home ; for the Hebrews well knew that Jehovah was an 
invisible and omnipresent spirit, who could not be con- 
fined to any one place. Says Solomon at the dedication 
of the temple, " Will God in very deed dwell with men 
on the earth ? Behold, heaven and the heaven of 
heavens cannot contain thee ; how much less this house 
which I have built ! " 2 The tabernacle was not in very 
deed, but only in symbol, the dwelling-place of Jehovah. 
It represented his true habitation, wherever and of 
whatever nature it may be, and the spiritual intercourse 

1 Exod. xxv. 8, 9. 2 2 Chron. vi. 18. 



MEANS OF INTERPRETATION. 



173 



subsisting between him and those who worship him in 
spirit and in truth. 

Constructed to serve as a habitation for their covenant 
God in the midst of the Hebrews, it was equipped in 
such a manner as to provide for ministrations expressive 
if not naturally, certainly by general usage, of atone- 
ment, restoration to favor, assurance of reconciliation 
and acceptable service ; and was thus both a sign and 
a seal of the covenant relation, and of the presence of 
Jehovah in the midst of his people 

The design of the tabernacle comes still more dis- 
tinctly to view as one proceeds from the consideration 
of the directions for its construction and equipment, to 
the ordinances concerning its ritual. Its ministrations, 
as established by the divine command, speak a natural 
language, which in its general significance is easily 
understood, whatever difficulties may gather around 
particular parts, resulting from the difference of manners 
and customs between our age and that of Moses. In 
view of the constancy and variety of significant cere- 
monies required, whatever their significance may be, it 
appears that God did not dwell among them in idleness, 
but was at all times observant and active. The taber- 
nacle was not only literally " in the midst of the camp," 
but was figuratively the centre of activity, the source 
of authority, the throne to which allegiance was ren- 
dered. 

It being, then, assumed that the tabernacle was the 
habitation in which Jehovah dwelt among the Hebrews 
as their God, to interchange in symbol such communica- 
tions as are appropriate between God and man, many of 
these transactions exhibit their significance immediately 
15* 



SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



even to one who looks at them from the stand-point of the 
present age and the ' modern civilization, and, by thus 
bringing into more distinct view the import of the whole 
symbolic apparatus to which they appertained, assist in 
the interpretation of those parts which are more obscure. 

IV. The Scriptural appellations of the tabernacle are 
a means of interpretation. 

The name of a thing is often expressive of its nature ; 
and this was true to a greater extent among the Hebrews 
than with us, because in that early age the meaning had 
not fallen out of words so much as now, neither 
had they imported so many foreign words into their 
language. Something may doubtless be learned of the 
significance of the symbolic edifice erected at Sinai from 
a critical examination of such Hebrew words as are 
translated tabernacle, tent, house, tabernacle of the 
testimony, tent of the congregation, sanctuary, and holy 
place. The word mishcan, rendered tabernacle, for 
example, is derived from shacan, to dwell ; so that its 
etymology points, concurrently with the declaration of 
the design of the edifice, to the idea of a dwelling-place, 
or habitation. 

V. The symbolism of nature is an important means 
of interpretation. 

That there is a correspondence more or less extensive 
between the visible world and the realm of ideas, has 
occurred, doubtless, to every one, though it more 
distinctly and extensively reveals itself to persons of 
deepest intuition. The universe is not an aimless product 
of power, but a revelation of the Creator. It is a commu- 
nication of his thought as writing, painting, and sculpture 
are of the thoughts of men ; so that, if we could but 



MEANS OF INTER PRE TA TION 1 7 5 

interpret its import, every thing he has made would be 
suggestive of ideas which, being already in God's mind, 
he would impart to us. 

The Hebrews in the time of Moses were at that stage 
of development when men most appreciate this symbol- 
ism of nature. In modern society, the reasoning faculty 
is much more used than the intuitive ; and, in the adult, 
the former has generally outgrown and overgrown the 
latter. It is only the few, like Shakspeare, Bunyan, 
Wordsworth, or the poet that puts into the mouth of an 
angel the suggestion, — 

" What if earth 
Be but the shadow of heaven and things therein, 
Each to other like, more than on earth is thought," — 

who are able to any great extent to see in nature the 
supernatural to which it corresponds ; the majority 
having so put asunder, in their habits of thought, what 
God in his eternal purpose has joined together, that they 
see only an inanimate form in that which has spirit and 
life. In consequence of this divorce between the natural 
and the supernatural in the minds of men, it results 
that processes of thought are carried on and concluded 
without any association of the ideas which have occupied 
the mind with their corresponding images in the under 
world of sense. The scholar is ambitious to be inde- 
pendent of the signs of ideas, that they may not mislead 
him, and to deal with the ideas themselves. At last he 
disconnects not only his thoughts from the physical 
world, but his feelings as well, forbearing outward expres- 
sion, and becoming habitually and characteristically 
undemonstrative. 



176 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

But in childhood, whether it be of the race or of an 
individual, the faculty of insight is relatively stronger 
than at a later stage of growth, and the exercise of it in 
connecting correspondent things in the two worlds with 
which man is conversant, each with its like, affords great 
pleasure. 

" Heaven lies about us in our infancy ! 
Shades of the prison-house begin to close 

Upon the growing boy ; 
But he beholds the light, and whence it flows ; 

He sees it in his joy. 
The youth, who daily farther from the east 

Must travel, still is Nature's priest, 

And by the vision splendid 

Is on his way attended." 

The child takes delight in seeing whatever ideas 
pertaining to the world of spirit he may have floating 
indistinctly before his mind's eye reduced to shape, and 
invested with bodies, so as to appeal to his senses like 
the phenomena of the world of matter with which he is 
familiar ; and, on the other hand, is pleased to discover 
that nature points to something higher than itself. 

The Hebrews, living in the childhood of humanity, 
were in that stage of development when men most 
delight in the symbolism of nature. We find them 
making much use of it, not only at the time of the 
exodus, but during the whole period of their history, 
from the calling of Abraham to the advent of our Lord. 
They were as eager to clothe all truths in physical 
drapery as a modern philosopher is to see them in their 
metaphysical nakedness. When they would assert the 



MEANS OF INTERPRETATION. 



177 



omnipresence of God, they did so in the words, " The 
eyes of the Lord are in every place ; " if they presented 
a prayer, they commenced by saying, " Bow down thine 
ear ; " when they meant that he had exerted his power, 
they spoke of the stretching-out of his arm. They were 
as well aware as any modern theologian that Jehovah 
had no eyes, ears, or arms ; but called these natural 
symbols to aid in conceiving of God. 

This symbolism, being founded in nature, is intelligible 
in some measure to all men. We can comprehend it 
when used by the Hebrews, even if our intellectual bent 
is, both by inheritance and education, in a different 
direction. So far as it has been employed in the taber- 
nacle, it yields its import either instantly and easily, or 
certainly, as the reward of investigation. White, for 
example, is a natural symbol of purity, the correspond- 
ence between the real and the ideal being, in this case, 
so evident that every one sees it as soon as proposed ; 
while a like proposal to represent purity of heart or 
of life by black or red, would be as speedily and as 
unanimously rejected. Consequently, even without the 
explanation given in the Apocalypse of the significance 
of the garments of byssos, or as the Hebrews called it, 
sheshy we should at once suspect that wherever this fine 
linen is found, whether in curtains or in garments, it is 
a symbol of holiness. So far as the symbolism of thee 
tabernacle is founded in nature, we can with painstaking 
ascertain its import, even though we are not able to see 
it so quickly as they for whose immediate benefit the 
institution was designed. 

VI. Another means of interpretation is the artificial 
symbolism of the ancients. 



i 7 8 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

It would not be surprising if a people fond of symbols 
should enlarge its vocabulary (if that appellation may be 
applied to this kind of language) by going beyond the 
domain of nature into that of art. The transition is easy 
from the representation of ideas by signs instinctively 
and universally understood, to the employment of signs 
whose significance depends on wide though not universal 
usage, on conventional in distinction from natural corre- 
spondence. Kings wear crowns, and sit on thrones ; and 
so crowns and thrones indicate royalty by a symbolism 
founded not in nature, but in the customs of society. 
Among the ancients, purple was worn by those m 
authority, and so became the badge of power and dis- 
tinction. 

The diligent student of etymology will find that this 
kind of symbolism has deeply tinged the thoughts of 
men in all past ages, and left its marks on the language 
we every day make use of ; marks unseen by the careless, 
and sometimes undiscovered even by the astute. But 
the same disposition which has moved poets and orators 
to represent ideas by material things conventionally 
connected with them, led to the use, among the ancients, 
of symbols of the same class for the purpose of religious 
instruction and inculcation. Indeed, their mode of 
representing ideas of religion wholly by tableaux, had 
stronger inducements to the multiplication of images than 
those felt by the poet and the orator ; and consequently 
symbolism among the ancients extended itself further 
beyond the domain of nature. To the system of repre- 
sentation in which there is a natural correspondence 
between the real and the ideal, or at least a connection 
established by extensive usage, there were added repre- 



MEANS OF INTERPRETATION. 



179 



sentative signs whose connection with their constituents 
is obscure, and in many cases seems to the uninitiated to 
have been arbitrarily instituted. Doubtless there was, 
however, in every case, to the mind of the person who 
first brought into use any representative sign, some 
connection apparent between it and the thing signified, 
even though it cannot now be discovered. 

Artificial symbolism, resembling that of the Hebrews, 
was in use among all the principal nations of antiquity. 

The temples of the Hindoos, the Chinese, the Chal- 
deans, and the Egyptians, were built with an adherence 
to certain forms, proportions, and repetitions, which 
leaves no room for doubt that their sacred architecture 
was significant, and that with some difference in the 
ideas expressed, and some variety in the mode of 
expressing the same ideas, they employed the relations 
of geometry and arithmetic to represent the objects of 
their religious thought. 

Color also was employed for the same purpose. In 
the worship of the Egyptians, red, white, and black, 
appear as emblems ; 1 and, in the astrological religion of 
the Chaldeans, each of the seven planets had its repre- 
sentative color. 2 

The three kingdoms of nature — the animal, the vege- 
table, and the mineral — were also made to subserve this 
artificial symbolism. 

The animal forms most frequently occurring were 
those of the ox, the eagle, the lion, and man. These 
were sometimes combined in one to represent the union 

1 Plutarch : De Iside, 22, 33. Wilkinson : Second Series of Manners and 
Customs of the Ancient Egyptians. Vol. i. p. 340. 

2 Philip Smith : History of the World. New York, 1865. Vol. i. p. 200, 
Layard : Nineveh and its Remains. Vol. ii. p. 212. 



i8o SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

of qualities for which each animal was severally distin- 
guished. The Hebrews had, for example, what are 
called in the Old Testament cherubs, and in the Apoca- 
lypse living creatures, or in the English version, most 
unfortunately, beasts, — composite forms made by uniting 
parts of the four animals mentioned above ; the Egyp- 
tians produced such compositions as the sphinx; the 
Chaldeans sculptured on their temples winged lions and 
bulls ; and the Hindoos abounded in most fantastic 
combinations. 

Of plants, the lotus-flower was the representative 
of life and immortality both among the Hindoos and 
the Egyptians. A wreath of green was everywhere in 
ancient times, as it is even now, a recognized symbol, 
Its significance is, however, so evident, and so generally 
discovered at once by those who have not been initiated 
into artificial systems, that it must be regarded as 
belonging to the realm of natural, rather than of 
arbitrary symbolism. 

From the mineral kingdom, the ancients adopted the 
metals as representatives of some of the most important 
ideas to be expressed in their symbolic institutions. 
Gold, as the most precious, was chiefly used in the 
rendition of honor to kings and gods, not being coined as 
money till after the time of Moses. Silver and copper 
also had their place, as more expressive of some qualities 
than gold. 

To interpret this artificial symbolism, it will be neces- 
sary to know the significance of numbers, forms, colors, 
vegetable and mineral substances, animals, and figures 
of animals, so far as these things were employed by 
Moses to represent ideas. As a preliminary, therefore, 



MEANS OF INTER PRE TA TION. 1 8 1 

to the interpretation of the tabernacle, we shall devote 
the next chapter to an examination of its symbolism of 
number and form, and in subsequent pages consider the 
significance of color. Afterward we must take up its 
catalogue of representative objects from the realm of 
nature, and inquire, in regard to each of them, what it 
was intended to represent. A few symbols of minor 
importance, or of less evident meaning, will be passed 
by in this preliminary work, to be interpreted when seen 
in their connection with, and relation to, more prominent 
and more picturesque members of the system. 

16 



CHAPTER V. 



SYMBOLISM OF NUMBER AND FORM. 

The symbolic use of number has left marks on the 
customs or literature of almost all the nations of 
antiquity. A Roman poet sings, — 

" Around his waxen image first I wind 
Three woollen fillets of three colors joined, 
Thrice bind about his thrice devoted head, 
Which round the sacred altar thrice is led : 
Unequal numbers please the gods." 1 

Another Roman, commenting on this passage, says, 
"The power of almost all the gods is shown by a triplex 
sign ; as, the three-forked lightning of Jupiter, the tri- 
dent of Neptune, and the three-headed dog of Pluto." 2 
A Greek philosopher declares, "All things are in triads, 
and the triad is in every thing ; for, as the Pythagoreans 
also say, the all and all things are bounded by three," 
and proceeds, " Wherefore, receiving from Nature her 
laws, we use this number also for the sacred rites of the 
gods." 3 Plutarch testifies that the Egyptians represented 

1 Dryden's Virgil, Eclogue viii. The lines in the original are,— 

" Tenia tibi haec primum triplici diversa colore 
Licia circumdo, terque haec altaria circum 
Effigiem duco: nuraero deus impare gaudet. 

2 Servius' Commentary on Virgil at the place cited. 

3 Aristotle: De Coelo, i. i. 
182 



SYMBOLISM OF NUMBER AND FORM. 183 

the all by the most perfect triangle which could be 
drawn, unquestionably using the all in the same panthe- 
istic sense in which Aristotle and Pythagoras employed 
it as equivalent to the Deity. 

We shall not attempt to trace this usage in countries 
lying farther toward the east. It is certain that the 
Assyrians, the Hindoos, and the Chinese employed a 
symbolism of number ; and it is probable that they use* 
substantially the same system as obtained among the 
Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans. It is to be 
expected that, in the advancement of learning, light will 
be reflected upon the symbolism of the Bible from the 
recently discovered monuments of Assyria ; and it may 
be that by the study of arrow-heads and wedges the 
knowledge of numerical symbolism among the Hebrews 
will be greatly advanced. 1 

At present, however, we must find our way as well as 
we can«by means of a comparison of Hebrew usage with 
that of the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans. 
The symbolism of the three nations last mentioned had 
so much in common that we may regard it as one 
system derived from the Egyptians by the Greeks and 
Romans, as it was also by the Hebrews if they did not 
bring it with them into Egypt as an inheritance from 
their Chaldean ancestor. Difference of religion may 
have occasioned a more frequent symbolic use of a 
particular number in one nation than in another, and 
may even have modified its significance as it also some- 
times changes the meaning of words ; but in these 
three nations there was a general coincidence in the 

l Rawlinson: The Five Great Monarchies. New York, 1871. Vol. i. p. 116 ; 
vol. iii. p. 31. 



1 84 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



meaning of numbers, and in the selection of those which, 
being used in the service of religion, were therefore called 
sacred. 

It is thought by some that these sacred numbers were 
consecrated because they were found occurring in the 
visible universe, and might therefore be regarded as 
favorites of the gods. Seven, for example, being the 
sum total of the planets, and twelve corresponding with 
the divisions of the zodiac, these numbers must be 
peculiarly agreeable to the Being who had thus stamped 
them upon his creation. 

But this theory neither accounts for the use of seven 
and twelve in the particular meanings we find them 
carrying, nor furnishes any reason at all for the sacredness 
of three, four, and ten. Besides, the sun and the moon 
must be counted in with Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, 
and Saturn, to make seven ; which, so far from being a 
necessary mode of conceiving of the planets, seems like 
an attempt to produce the number seven as something 
already esteemed and desired ; while the division of the 
zodiac into twelve parts is by no means unavoidable, 
and may have been determined by those who already 
regarded twelve as holy. 

It is more probable that the symbolism of number 
had its origin in the philosophy which, discovering every- 
where the reign of exact and universal law, identified it 
with the law of arithmetical relations. Nothing is more 
exact than arithmetic ; and the ancients thought that 
they had found in it the rule by which the worlds 
were made. Under this conviction, they speculated on 
number, and then sought in nature for phenomena 
corresponding with the results of their speculation. 



SYMBOLISM OF NUMBER AND FORM. 185 

Having conceived a predilection for seven planets, rather 
than five, they arrived at the favorite number by adding 
the sun and the moon, to the five moving stars then 
known which might, with equal propriety, have been 
set in a family by themselves. 

Among systems of ancient philosophy, assuming that 
the law governing relations of number was identical 
with the law which pervades the visible universe, the 
system of Pythagoras is eminently illustrative of the sub- 
ject in hand. 

Its " fundamental doctrines are, that the essences of 
all things rest upon numerical relations ; that numbers 
are the principle of all that exists ; and that the world 
subsists by the rhythmical order of its different elements. 
Everywhere in nature appear the two elements of the 
finite and the infinite, which give rise to the elementary 
opposites of the universe ; the odd and even, one and 
many, right and left, male and female, fixed and moved, 
straight and curved, light and darkness, square and 
oblong, good and bad. The essence of number is unity, 
which is at once odd and even, and contains in itself in 
germ all the universe. It is at once the form and 
substance of all things, and identical with the Deity. 
Proceeding from itself, it begets duality ; and, returning 
upon itself, it begets trinity. Added to itself, it produces 
the line ; a third point placed on the other two gives the 
surface ; and a fourth point placed on the other three 
gives the pyramid or solid. The quadrate, or tetractys, 
and the decade, are, like unity, sacred numbers and first 
principles." 1 

In the coronation of number as the reigning principle, 

1 New American Cyclopedia. New York, 1863. Art. " Pythagoras." 
16* 



186 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



Pythagoras did but go beyond his countrymen and 
contemporaries ; for the opinion generally prevailed in 
his day, as it had for centuries, that the same laws which 
determined numerical relations were impressed on the 
universe and were discoverable in many if not in all 
things. 

Extravagant stories have been related by the admirers 
of Pythagoras of the extent of his travels, and personal 
contact with the learned men of foreign countries ; but 
it is admitted by the most critical historians that he 
visited Egypt, and that his philosophy may be an 
offshoot from that which was taught on the banks of the 
Nile. But, if he studied the symbolism of number in 
the schools where Moses had previously become learned 
in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, it is to be expected 
that his speculations, and those of his disciples, will 
reflect light on the use of numbers in matters of religion 
not only in Greece and Rome, but by the Egyptians and 
the Hebrews. 1 

We thus connect the Hebrews with the Egyptians in 
our expectation of aid from the philosophy of Egypt, 
because there is no reason why Moses, renouncing the 
symbolism he learned as the son of Pharaoh's daughter, 
should institute a new system in its place ; and because 
there is too close a resemblance between that which we 

l Wilkinson says of the older Greek philosophers, in comparison with writers 
of the Alexandrian school, " The works of Plato, and other more ancient writers, 
evidently contain much that owes its origin to the knowledge they acquired from 
the Egyptians ; and Pythagoras imitated many notions of his instructors with 
scrupulous precision. Such authorities are of the greatest use in the examination 
of the dogmas of this people ; and they had the advantage of studying them at a 
time and place in which religion was not exposed to fanciful innovations." — Sec- 
ond Series of the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, vol. i. p. 227. 



SYMBOLISM OF NUMBER AND FORM. 187 

find in his institutions, and that which he must have 
learned in Egypt, to permit such a supposition. Says 
Wilkinson, speaking of the seventy days of mourning 
for the dead, appointed among the Egyptians, "This 
arbitrary period cannot fail to call to mind the frequent 
occurrence of the numbers seven and seventy, which are 
observed in so many instances both among the Egyp- 
tians and the Jews." 1 

We may recur to the brief resume of the system of 
Pythagoras, which we have copied, for illustrations of the 
mode in which aid is to be derived from the speculations 
of ancient philosophy in the interpretation of numerical 
symbolism. In his doctrine that the two elements of the 
finite and the infinite give origin to the distinction of 
odd and even, we find the key to the fact that the 
ancients apply only odd numbers to whatever relates to 
the gods, that is, to the infinite. Also, when we hear 
him speaking of unity as at once odd and even, we learn 
why three was regarded as the first of the odd numbers, 
and therefore pre-eminently significant of divine things. 

The numbers symbolically used in the tabernacle are 
three, four, five, seven, ten, and twelve ; and we propose 
to inquire, in reference to each of them, what there is in 
the speculations of philosophy to determine its symbolic 
meaning among the heathen, and then what was peculiar 
in the use of it by the Hebrews. 

III. 

Of three, the philosophers said that it was the first in 
the series of numbers of which we could speak as all ; two 
things when put together being mentioned as both, but 

1 Wilkinson, Second Series, vol. ii. p. 459. 



l88 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



not as all. Several passages of Greek literature charac- 
terize three as including the beginning, middle, and end 
of a thing, and so its totality, or completeness. 1 Aristotle 
argues that "a body is a complete magnitude, because, 
while a line is divisible in one way, and a superficies in 
two ways, a body is divisible in three ways ; and three are 
ally and thrice includes every thing. There is no other 
magnitude than a body or solid from the division of 
which a solid would result." 2 

They found in nature many confirmations of the signi- 
ficance which their speculations had thus assigned to 
three. According to their conception, the material uni- 
verse consisted of heaven, earth, and hades ; and duration 
was complete in the past, the present, and the future. 

Receiving, then, from Nature, as they believed, her 
laws, they applied the number three to the gods and 
whatever appertained to them, in testimony of the 
completeness of their being. 3 It categorized them as 
immortal, infinite, and divine, in distinction from mortal, 
finite, and human. 

Three was an appropriate signature for the highest 
personality, as a result not only of speculation, but of the 
conception which they entertained of the origin of per- 

1 Dionysius Halicarnassensis, Antiq. Rom. iii. 12 : 'ETUTtjdetoTaTov yap elvai 
tqv de tov aptd[ibv elg imaoav a,[j.(j)i(7i37]TOV{i£vov irpayfiarog dia'ipeoiv apxv v 
re ml fieaa, ml relevr^v exovra ev Eavrti. Plutarch, Conviv. ix. 3 : Kal [ir/v 6 
iravruv apidfiuv ixpurog teIeloq, t] (lev rpiag, ug apxhv ml fisaov exovaa 
nal rehog. Johannes Laurentius Lydus, De Mensibus, iv. 44 : Ty yap dvadi 
avveWovarjg fiovddog npurog apidfibg hix&ri, og mlelTai vif ev'uov TskeLog, 
on rtp&Tog tu navra ar\fiaivEL Kal npurog eSec^ev apxyv, fieaa, TeXog. 

2 De Coelo, i. 1. 

3 Plato (De Legibus iv. 716) applies the same language to the Deity as Diony- 
sius in the place above cited, applies to three, viz : 'O fiev $7 deog, tioirep Kal 6 
naAaidg loyog, apxrjv re Kal teXevttjv ml fieaa tuv ovtuv anavTuv l^wv. 



SYMBOLISM OF NUMBER AND FORM. 189 

sonal gods. The impersonal all, energizing, produced 
the first personality. Here are three ideas, — first, the 
unknown god ; second, its action ; third, the product of 
its evolution. 

Not content, however, with this one triad, they made 
another by conceiving of three gods of the highest rank, 
called, in the mythology of Greece and Rome, Jupiter 
who ruled the air, Neptune the god of the sea, and Pluto 
who reigned in the under- world. The Egyptians divided 
their whole pantheon into groups of three, each triad 
having a local dominion, and a temple in which it was 
jointly worshipped. 1 

In the artificial symbolism of the ancients, form, as 
well as number, had significance ; and the triangle was 
among forms what three was among numbers. As 
three is the earliest number which restores the unity lost 
in duality, and the earliest to which we can apply the 
word all, so the triangle is the simplest of forms, being 
included by the fewest lines which could delineate a 
figure. It was employed, therefore, as a symbol, to 
convey by its form the same significance which was 
conveyed by the number of its sides considered as a 
number. That most beautiful triangle of which Plutarch 
speaks as being, among the Egyptians, the signature of 
" the all" was, as he informs us, rectangular, and of such 
proportions that, if three be taken as the length of the 
perpendicular, four will be the measure of the base, and 
five of the hypothenuse : in which scheme the perpen- 

1 Wilkinson : Second Series of The Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyp- 
tians, vol. i. p. 185. See on p. 343 of the same volume, an illustrative instance 
of the symbolism of three in the account given of the triple symbol, representing 
the perfection of the generative power of Osiris. 



190 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



dicular is designed to represent the masculine nature, 
the base, the feminine, and the hypothenuse, the off- 
spring of both ; and accordingly the first will apply to 
Osiris the prime cause, the second to Isis the receptive 
power, and the last to Orus the effect of the other two. 1 

Mosaism was so antagonistic to all the systems of 
heathenism, in respect to the ideas inculcated, that it 
could not possibly use the triangle as an emblem of the 
one God whom it revealed. It prohibited altogether 
the use of symbols of Jehovah made with hands, and 
furnished in the shechinah a supernatural signature 
which might not be displaced by any other. 

But though there was no three-sided figure in the 
tabernacle, or in any thing connected with it, there are 
indications that the use of three as the number sug- 
gesting inherent completeness, and, by consequence, the 
divine Being, was retained by the Hebrews. Such indi- 
cations are discernible not only in the institutions 
established through the instrumentality of Moses, but 
in the national literature in subsequent generations till 
the time of the New Testament Apocalypse. 

For example : three limited the period which the peo- 
ple were required to spend in solemn waiting 2 before 
Jehovah revealed his presence by lightning and thunder 
from the summit of Sinai to enter into a formal cove- 
nant with them according to previous arrangement. 
They had not only time for preparation, but a reminder, 
in the number of days thus spent, that the Being whom 
they expected was infinite and divine. 

1 Plutarch : De Iside et Osiride, 56. See Wilkinson. Second Series, vol. i. p. 
192. 

2 Exod. xix. 11, 16. 



SYMBOLISM OF NUMBER AND FORM. 191 

Again : a person defiled by contact with the dead was 
required to be sprinkled with the water of separation 
on the third, and again on the seventh day; and was 
expressly declared not to be lustrated unless sprinkled on 
the third day, as well as on the seventh. 1 As seven, the 
numerical sign of the covenant, results from the addition 
of three and four, the numbers representing the infinite 
and the finite, respectively, and thus marks the covenant 
as a transaction in which the two parties are engaged, 
the requirement of the two sprinklings, the first on the 
third day of the ceremonial, and the second after an 
interval of four days, must have been an impressive seal 
of restoration to the privileges of the covenant. 

The formula in which the officiating priest was tp 
bless the people at the close of worship was a triplet of 
clauses containing the name of Jehovah in each ; and 
the law which prescribed the formula declares that to 
pronounce it was to put that sacred name upon the 
children of Israel. 2 By their traditions the priests 
intensified the significance of three in this formula, 
accompanying the utterance of the triplet with a three- 
fold division of the fingers when their hands were 
stretched forth in the attitude of benediction. 3 

A similar threefold repetition is found in the vision 
of the throne of God vouchsafed to Isaiah. Two 
seraphs stood above the throne, and cried one to 
another, " Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts." 4 
However it may be with the uninitiated, one who 
has acquainted himself with the numerical symbolism of 
the ancient heathen nations, and compared with it the 



1 Num. xix. 12. 2 Num. vi. 23, et seq. 

3 Lund, Book III. ch. xlviii. n. 18. 4 Isa. vi. 1-3. 



192 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



Hebrew use of numbers, will not be likely to disbelieve 
that the triplicity of this ascription was determined by 
a law requiring for the countrymen and contemporaries 
of the prophet, three, rather than two or four, as the 
number representing that which is infinite and divine. 

Passing onward to the New Testament, we find Paul, 
who styles himself a Hebrew of the Hebrews, using in 
respect to the God of his fathers the triplex assertion, 
" Of him, and through him, and to him are all things ;" 1 
and the writer of the Apocalypse declaring that he also 
had seen in vision the throne of God, and that symbolic 
beings around and before it were continually exclaiming 
as in the vision of Isaiah, " Holy, holy, holy, Lord God 
Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come," 2 thus 
designating the object of their reverence by three 
several appellations, affirming in the trisagion the per- 
fection of his holiness, and in the concluding ternary 
clause the eternity, independence, and indestructibility 
of his existence. 

There are, indeed, in the Hebrew Scriptures two or 
three instances where a word or phrase which has no 
reference to the infinite and divine is thrice used, so 
that such a reference in the cases above cited cannot be 
established by an appeal to universal usage ; but these 
exceptions to one rule fall under another which is more 
generic, namely, that triplicity implies inherent com- 
pleteness. The repetition is for the sake of saying the 
thing exhaustively ; as, for example, " The temple of 
Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah, 
are these," 3 and " O earth, earth, earth, hear the word 
of Jehovah." 4 There is either a law of nature, or a law 

l Rom. xi. 36. 2 Rev. iv. 2-8. 3 Jer. vil 4. 4 jer. xxii. 29. 



SYMBOLISM OF NUMBER AND FORM. 193 

of usage which, being already established in the time of 
the prophets, still remains, and affects us as if it were a 
law of nature, by which a threefold utterance is more 
forcible than a mere repetition, and gains nothing by 
further iteration. These instances, therefore, go to 
show that with the Hebrews three was the numerical sign 
of that which is in itself complete. But the heathen 
applied it to that which is divine for this very reason ; 
and Moses was so well acquainted with their usage, that 
he could not connect this number with the mention of 
God without being conscious that he was employing a 
symbol in common use in other nations, to represent 
that which is ^divine because inherently complete. If 
triplicity, as thus used, had been displeasing to him, 
he certainly would have devised some way of giving 
emphasis to his language without using the offensive 
symbol in immediate connection with the mention of 
Jehovah. But why should he reject the language of 
symbolism because it had been subjected to the service 
of a false religion, more than other language which had 
suffered a similar misuse ? Why should he not employ 
the very symbol under consideration to inculcate the 
inherent perfection of the God whom he served ? 

Further illustration of the symbolic use of three by 
the Hebrews may be found in the Apocalypse of the 
New Testament. The whole book seems to have been 
composed with a reference in the mind of the author to 
the significance of numbers ; but the conspicuous role 
of three is worthy of notice even if we do not wait to 
inquire what it signified. Stuart says, " With scarcely 
an exception, it is so arranged that either the number 
three, or else seven, four, ten, twelve, and (if parallelism 
13 



SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



De counted) two, control its modes of development ; i.e., 
the arrangement of its parts greater and smaller, the 
grouping of its objects, the assignment of attributes to 
them, the epexegetical clauses, and the order of action 
main and subordinate. Above all, the number three 
stands conspicuous in the whole plan, and in all its parts 
considerable and minute. Next to this stands the 
so-called sacred number seven, then four, then twelve, 
and lastly ten." 1 

It is said that the Book of Job also exhibits in its 
divisions a similar reference in the mind of the author 
to three as a significant number. 2 

IV. 

The ancients, reserving three for things invisible and 
infinite, assigned to four the office of representing 
material substances, and found in it a special aptitude 
for this use, because if unity, or one, represents a point, a 
second point extends it to a line ; a third being added at 
right angles to the line extends it to a superficies ; and 
a fourth being superimposed extends the superficies to a 
solid. 3 In the symmetrical composition of this number 
out of the two factors which produce it both by addition 
and multiplication, they found a reason for representing 

1 Commentary on the Apocalypse. Andover, 1845. Vol. i. p. 130. 

2 Ibid, vol. i. p. 142. 

8 Philo : De Mundi Opificio. ILp6r V yap avrrj (sc. rerpag) ttjv rov arepeov 
fvaiv Me& tuv npb avrfjg ap^fiuv rolg aa^arocg ianucafdvmr mrajihyap 
rd iv rarrerat to leyofievov kv yeofierpia elvai orifieZov (point)- Kara 6e ra 6vo, 
ypauuv (Hne)- ypa^rj de tan rfmg anlar.es- irlarovg de npoayevo^vov ycverat 
Mavaa, v reraKrat Kara rptada- t^aveia 6e izpdg r^fi rov arepeov tyvaLV, hog 
detrat rov (3adovg- irpoaetiev rpcddc, ytverai rerpag- Wev ml fieya xpnP* 
oviiptpnw dim rov apt^bv rovrov, bg hn rrjg aa^arov ml vo V r m ovacag 
yyayev rjaag elg frvoiav rpiX^ ^aaTarov a^aTog r.y tyvcei irporov atad^rov. 



SYMBOLISM OF NUMBER AND FORM. 195 

by it not only matter, but the universe of matter in its 
orderly arrangement, and therefore employed it as a 
signature of the cosmos. 1 

They accordingly found this number everywhere in 
the universe around them. 2 There were four elements, 
four winds, and four seasons of the year ; the earth had 
four ends and four corners, and so had the heavens. 

In availing himself of that numerical symbolism 
which he had learned in Egypt, Moses was constrained 
to modify the meaning of four. Heathenism conceived 
of the material universe as the only revelation of the 
Being who created it ; but Moses knew that the visible 
world, beautiful and glorious as it appeared in itself, 
and as a manifestation of the Creator, was subsidiary 
to man, and to God's purposes in regard to him. 
Heathenism pointed only to the power and wisdom 
of God as evident in the orderly disposition of matter ; 
but through Moses a revelation was made of God's 
moral nature, as well as of his natural attributes. In 
Mosaism, as in Christianity, nature, though not unim- 
portant, was inferior to the supernatural. The material 
universe was regarded as subsidiary to a race of beings 
made in the likeness of God, in whose history the 
Creator would reveal his glory more fully than he had 
done in the earth beneath, or in the firmament above. 
All things were created to the intent that the wisdom of 
God (which the Egyptians discovered in the constitution 

1 " Clemens mentions the custom of carrying four golden figures in the festivals 
of the gods. They were two dogs, a hawk, and an ibis, which, like the number four, 
had a mysterious meaning. The dogs represented the hemispheres, the hawk the 
sun, and the ibis the moon." Wilkinson, Second Series of Manners and Customs, 
vol. ii. p. 302. See also Philo, ibid ; and Plutarch, De Iside, 76. 

2 Philo : De Plantations Noe. 



196 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



of things according to the laws of arithmetic and 
geometry,) might be made known even to principalities 
and powers in heavenly places by means of a people 
whom God had chosen for that end. 

In Mosaism, therefore, four represented, as in hea- 
thenism, that in which God dwelt, and revealed himself ; 
but it represented his church rather than the material 
universe, the people of Israel rather than the rest of 
mankind, because, according to the idea of Mosaism, 
Israel was his dwelling-place. In the purpose of God, 
all other nations were ultimately to be included with the 
Hebrews as his people ; but this purpose, though 
obscurely hinted at in the communications which 
Jehovah made from time to time to the Hebrews, was 
not fully revealed till the advent of Christ. It was to 
the Hebrews, in distinction from other nations, that 
Jehovah promised to come and dwell among them, to be 
their God, and have them for his people. If, then, we 
find four occurring in the tabernacle, we must think of 
the Hebrew theocracy, the chosen people of God 
organized into a community of which he was the ruler, 
rather than of the cosmos. 1 Four had not ceased to 
signify in Hebrew symbolism the visible world, and the 
revelation it makes of the Creator; but in this symbolic 
institution it is to be referred to the spiritual kingdom 
of God in the world, and not to the world itself. 

As four represented in heathenism not only the 
cosmos, but its revelation of the wisdom and power 

1 Bahr, though endeavoring to guard against the cosmical views of heathenism, 
nevertheless refers the quadrangle, so often occurring in the tabernacle, to the 
material universe as the habitation of God. The view presented in the text accords 
with tha^ advocated by Kurtz in Studien und Kritiken, 1844, p. 342 et seq. 



SYMBOLISM OF NUMBER AND FORM'. 197 

employed in its production, so in Mosaism this number 
referred not merely to the Hebrew church, but to the 
revelation of himself which Jehovah was making in and 
by means of it. It was the signature of the whole 
collective body of God's redeemed people, employed to 
represent them in the revelations and visions by means 
of which God made himself known, showing itself not 
only in the quadrangular ground-plan of the tabernacle 
and of the temple at Jerusalem, but in the ideal temple 
exhibited to the prophet Ezekiel, in the New Jerusalem 
of the Apocalypse, and in the symbols of redeemed 
humanity which Ezekiel saw in vision beneath the 
sapphire throne of Jehovah. 

The number four is so conspicuous, in the last 
instance, that it may be instructive to notice how fre- 
quently it has been introduced. Out of the midst of the 
cloud which was the first scene of the vision, appeared 
four living creatures, every one having four faces and four 
wings ; the four faces of each were faces of four different 
animals. The four symbolic beings supported a throne, 
which they carried with equal ease toward any one of 
the four points of the compass. There were four wheels 
animated and moved by these living creatures. 

As a triangle was coincident in meaning with three, 
we might expect that a figure bounded by four sides 
would have the same significance as four. Not only 
does coincidence between form and number in the first 
case excite expectation of it in the other ; but, anteriorly 
to the knowledge of such coincidence, there is, in the 
laws which regulate all expression of thought, ground 
of expectation that there will be such accord between 
number and form in their symbolism that a superficial 
17* 



ig8 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



figure shall not in its significance traverse, but har- 
monize with, the number of lines which constitute its 
boundary. Accordingly we find that, as four was the 
numerical signature of the theocracy, the tabernacle was 
four-sided, and the court of corresponding shape, as 
was also in after times the temple at Jerusalem. The 
temple seen in vision by Ezekiel, and the New Jerusalem 
described in the Apocalypse, were also four-sided. The 
reason why some of the figures exhibited by a horizon- 
tal section of these symbolic edifices were square, and 
others oblong, will appear hereafter : it is sufficient for 
the present purpose that they were all quadrilateral, as 
if, in the symbolism of form, only a four sided figure 
could represent the thought conveyed by the numeral 
four in the symbolism of number. 

V. 

Various meanings were attached to five by the 
Pythagoreans, springing out of its relation to other 
numbers ; but the Hebrews appear to have used it only 
in its relation to ten. What it signified when thus used, 
may be inferred from explanations found in Greek 
literature ; of which we will specify two. A disciple of 
Pythagoras speaks of this number as " half divine, not 
only because it is the half of ten, but also because it 
occupies the middle or half-way place in the line of 
numbers. " 1 Another writer says, " Five receiving four, 
which is the signature of matter, increases it, and carries 
it on toward the completeness which results from 

1 Quoted by Bahr, vol. i. p. 186. Kal 'Hfj,i^eog, ov fxovov 6ti tov de/ca, ■&eiov 
bvrog, Tjfuceia eonv, aXka nal otl ev t& idiu diaypan/iari ev r<p Kara fieaov 



SYMBOLISM OF NUMBER AND FORM. 199 

growth ; for five is the divider of ten, and, as it were, an 
image of the perfection belonging to it." 1 The conclu- 
sion is, that five, in its relation to ten, denoted the 
incomplete, or, if used with mathematical precision, the 
dimidiate, condition of that which would be finished in 
ten. 

VII. 

Of all numbers conveying significance in matters of 
religion, seven was most frequently employed by the 
Hebrews. It was also in use among other ancient 
nations, particularly the Chaldeans, the Arabs, the 
Persians, and the Egyptians. 2 Traces of it are found 
in the literature 3 and mythology of Greece; but they 
are less frequent and less deep than those left by other 
numbers, especially by three and four. The usual 
sources of interpretation, therefore, fail to a corre- 
sponding extent. The symbol of Pan and his pipe of 
seven reeds was probably designed to represent the 
harmony of the universe, and the delight in it of 
the intelligent but not personal source from which it was 
evolved ; seven referring to the number of the planets, 
and to " the music of the spheres." 

The earliest explanation given in Greek literature of 
the significance of this number on speculative grounds 
is that given by Philo, who praises it at great length as 
the most honorable of all the numbers within the first 

* 1 Johannes Laurentius Lydus : De Mensibus, ii. 9. 'H yap Ttevrag ■Kapalaftovca 
rrjv TETpdda vhr/g \byov l\ovaav . . . ?}v%7}ge reavT^v koc nporjyayev km ttjv anb 
ttjq av&oeog aluvcov avaKVKkriOiv fietfopiov yap r^g dsnadog, nat ug &v u&tShhv 
ecu Trjg noivfjg TsfeioTTjrog ij Txevrag. 

2 Gesenius, Lex. Heb. #31?. Wilkinson : Second Series, vol. ii. p. 459. 

8 Gesenius, ibid. 



200 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



decade ; being formed by the union of three and four, 
the signatures, respectively, of incorporeal and corporeal 
things ; containing in itself all arithmetical, geometrical, 
and musical proportions ; dividing the seventy years of 
human life, according to Solon, into periods of ten, and, 
according to Hippocrates, into seven periods, each 
consisting of seven or a multiple of seven. The 
Pythagoreans, he says, assimilate it to the Ruler of the 
universe, because it is so unique among the numbers. 1 

If the Pythagoreans, and the Egyptian priests from 
whom Pythagoras learned the significance of numbers, 
applied seven to the Ruler of the universe, it was probably 
with reference to the union between the primal all and 
the all which had been evolved. That they so applied 
it, rests for the present on the testimony of Philo 
confirmed by the common interpretation of the myth in 
regard to Pan. The study of Egyptology may confirm 
or refute this testimony. Meantime it suggests a 
probable explanation of the religious usage of seven 
both by pantheistic and monotheistic nations. With 
diversity of meaning, incident to diversity of religion, it 
signified alike in the two opposite systems the union of 
the infinite and the finite. In heathenism, seven was 
the signature of the Ruler of the universe, present in, 
and acting on the 'universe. In monotheism, it signified 
the presence of the one living and true God in 
communion with his intelligent creation. 

Moses had been instructed, doubtless, in respect to 
the use of seven in the philosophy of Egypt, and was 
probably acquainted also with its different and yet similar 
use in the religion of his ancestor who emigrated from 

A De Mundi Opificio. 



SYMBOLISM OF NUMBER AND FORM. 201 

Chaldea. For there is evidence that Abraham, as well 
as the pantheistic patrons of Egyptian idolatry, attached 
symbolic significance to this number. In the language 
he learned in his native Mesopotamia and transmitted to 
his descendants, seven, and the appeal to God made in an 
oath, were expressed by the same word, so that one might 
literally translate a portion of the record of his covenant 
with the king of Gerar, " Wherefore he called that place 
the Well of the Oath, because there they sware both of 
them ; " or, the Well of Seven, because there they both 
were sevened. It is worthy of notice, also, that Abraham 
gave to Abimelech seven ewe-lambs as a witness or seal 
of the covenant by the terms of which the well was 
confirmed to Abraham as his property. 1 

Balaam, who resided 2 not far from the original home 
of Abraham, seems to have attached a similar value 
to the number seven. Retained by the king of Moab to 
pronounce an inspired curse on the Hebrews, he directed 
that seven altars should be built, and offered thereon 
seven bullocks and seven rams. Failing to procure the 
desired oracle against Israel, Balak conducted the prophet 
to another eminence, where he again required that seven 
altars should be erected, and again sacrificed seven bull- 
ocks and seven rams, in hope of receiving a message 
from God of different import. Disappointed a second 
time, the king brought him to a third high place, where 
he once more repeated his requirement of seven altars, 
and his sacrifice of seven bullocks and seven rams. 

In this attempt of Balaam to obtain an oracle, there 
was, as in the oath of Abraham, an appeal to God ; and 
probably the number seven indicated in both cases a 

1 Gen. xxi. 25-31. 2 Deut. xxiii. 4 ; Num. xxiii. 7. 



202 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



transaction between God and man. It signified spiritual 
communion between the Creator and his intelligent 
creature, as in pantheism it signified the union of the 
infinite and the finite. 

We need not here catalogue the instances in which 
seven occurs in the tabernacle. When we come to the 
work of interpretation, the key, furnished by the two 
examples just given of the use of seven by monotheists 
outside of Mosaism, will be applied to the symbolic insti- 
tutions of the Hebrews, in the expectation that it will so 
effectually accomplish its office as to prove itself the 
true key. 

X. 

In all nations which use the decimal system of compu- 
tation, ten has a significance derived from its place 
between the first and second decades. The Egyptians 
and the Pythagoreans regarded it as the beginning of the 
second, rather than the close of the first division of 
numbers ; their natural progression being as far as nine, 
after which their retrogression takes place, ten becoming 
once more the monad. There being no elementary 
number beyond nine, the Pythagoreans called it ocean 
and the horizon ; but ten was called heaven, being the 
most perfect boundary of number. 1 They discovered a 
mystic similarity between ten and four, founded in the 
fact that the sum of the first four digits is equal to ten ; 
and, as they conceived of the tetractys as the numerical 
sign of body or the visible world, so ten represented 
the world in its finished and perfected condition. Four 
symbolized the world with such order and beauty as it 

1 Wilkinson : Second Series, vol. i. p. 197. 



SYMBOLISM OF NUMBER AND FORM. 203 



now possesses ; but ten suggested a cosmos in which no 
defects should be apparent. 1 

Ten also represented as a perfect boundary of number, 
the totality of the world, and of worldly things. The 
stars were numbered in clusters of ten ; armies were 
enrolled by the same rule ; property, consisting at first 
almost exclusively of flocks and herds, was reckoned 
by tens. Doubtless from this mode of reckoning 
property, resulted the rule of giving one-tenth, rather 
than some other fraction, as an acknowledgment that a 
person's whole property 2 is from God; and the univer- 
sality of this rule is one of many proofs that, notwith- 
standing the diversity of speech in the ancient world, 
the language of number was ecumenical. 

Ten is of frequent occurrence in the Hebrew 
institutions and writings. Both Jewish and Christian 
commentators 3 have noticed that, during the six days of 
God's work of creation, there were ten successive fiats 
by which the world was made, and that after the record 
of the tenth follows the declaration, " Thus the heavens 
and the earth were finished, and all the host of them." 
They discover, in this mode of narration, an intended 

1 Philo, De Mundi Opificio : "H 6' iarlv atria, 51 rjv irporepa fiev e(3?MOT?}ae 
ml ex7iOTj(t)6p7}(yev rj yrj, 6 5' ovpavbg 6iskog/j.£Ito av&?jg ev api#/z<p reTie'iu, rerpadr 
tjv demdog rrjg iravr£?Lovg ovn uv diafiaproi rig elvat teyuv tKpopfiqv re ml irrjyTjv. 
5 yap evreXexda denug, tovto rerpag, <hg toons dwaiieL' el ovv oi citto fiovfidog 
axpt> rerpudog k^rjg avvTedelev apififiol, dendda yevvrjaovGLV , rjTtg opog rrjg aireipiac 
tuv apv&iiuv earl, its pi bv ug nafimTipa ei?wvvTaL nal avaKa/xTrrovai. 

2 Spencer (De Legibus Hebraeorum, Liber III. Dis. i. cap. x.) recognizes in 
tithes a symbolic meaning of ten, but erroneously interprets ten as signifying the 
perfection of God. Three signified inherent completeness, and ten the complete- 
ness resulting from addition or growth. The tenth in tithes symbolized, therefore, 
the whole property, and not the perfection of Him to whom the tenth was dedicated. 

3 Maimonides: Pirke Aboth v. 1. Delitzsch: Genesis. Leipzig, 1853. P. 20. 



204 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



correspondence with the progress of number from one 
to ten, where the first decade is finished by the com- 
mencement of the second ; the tenth fiat of the Almighty 
representing the completeness of the work, as the seventh 
day signified its end. They discover the law of number 
not only in the thought and speech of the narrator, but 
even in the work of creation itself ; ten, which is the 
natural sign of complete organization, being thus 
stamped upon the world which God had organized and 
finished, as well as brought into existence. 

The author of the Book of Genesis, having recorded 
the ten successive fiats of creation, proceeds to build 
upon this record his history of the world, and in ten 
divisions, each commencing with the words, " These are 
the generations," he completes it to his own time. Such 
an arrangement of his history was doubtless intended to 
signify that it was not a fragment, or a mere aggregation 
of independent fragments, but an organized whole. 
" The number ten stamps upon the entire book, or rather 
upon the early history of Israel recorded in the book, 
the character of completeness." 1 

The seal of ten was impressed not only on the creation, 
but on the covenant between Jehovah and the Hebrews, 
of which the ten commandments were the foundation 
and witness. The summary of the law consisted of 
" ten words," 2 corresponding in number to the ten 
words by means of which all things were created. To 
one who knows only modern habits of thought, it may 
seem that there was no designed reference to the 
number ten in the construction of the decalogue ; but no 

1 Keil : Comm. on Pentateuch. Edinburgh, 1869. Vol. i. p. 36, 

2 Exocl. xxxiv. 28 ; Deut. x. 4, margin. 



SYMBOLISM OF NUMBER AND FORM. 205 

ancient nation would have failed to discover significance 
in the fact that the commandments were no more and 
no less than ten. 

Tithes, though common to all the nations anterior 
to the time of Moses, were expressly enjoined in the 
theocracy. The armies of Israel were arranged in 
decades ; so that there were captains of tens, of hundreds, 
and of thousands. When there was occasion to speak 
of any composite unit made up of elementary units, ten 
was the number employed to represent it ; as, for 
example, the ten horns in the Book of Daniel and in the 
Apocalypse. 

The conclusion of the whole matter is, that the 
Hebrews, in common with other ancient nations, asso- 
ciated with ten the idea of the wholeness of any object 
which consisted of parts, and employed it particularly as 
the signature of the world in its entirety. What we 
mean when we say the whole world, they intended when 
they stamped upon what they said, concerning the world, 
the number ten. 

XII. 

Twelve was so evidently used by Moses as the 
signature of the Hebrew people, that we need not dwell 
long on the proof. When the covenant between Jehovah 
and the people was ratified at Sinai, twelve pillars 
represented the twelve tribes of Israel. 1 The breast- 
plate of the high-priest contained twelve gems, each 
inscribed with the name of one of the twelve sons of 
Jacob. 2 Twelve loaves of bread were placed on the 
table in the holy place every sabbath day. 3 

l Exod. xxiv. 4. 2 Exod. xxviii. 21. 8 Lev. xxiv. 5. 

iS 



2o6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



But, while there can be no disagreement respecting 
the symbolism of twelve, there is room for difference of 
opinion in regard to the ground of its significance. At 
first thought, one is ready to believe that its election to 
be the numerical symbol of the covenant people resulted 
from the accident that there were no more and no less 
than twelve sons in the family of Jacob. But when we 
consider that the number is constantly and carefully 
adhered to, the two half tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh 
being reckoned as two tribes in any computation in 
which Levi cannot properly appear, and as one tribe 
when Levi is counted, 1 we shall perhaps conclude, that if 
Jacob had begotten eleven or thirteen sons, instead of 
twelve, the tribal arrangement would nevertheless have 
been made according to the number twelve. When we 
remember that the New Testament shows the same 
careful adherence to twelve in the number of the apostles, 
one being added to the eleven after the apostasy of Judas, 
and twelve being always the signature of the college of 

1 In the enrolment at Sinai, and also in that made in the plains of Moab, of men 
liable to military duty, Ephraim and Manasseh were counted as two tribes ; the 
tribe of Levi being exempt on account of their duty to the sanctuary. Stanley 
(Jewish Church, Second Series, p. 450 et seg.) has graphically shown that, though 
not enrolled, they sometimes rendered efficient service as volunteers. In the 
encampment, Ephraim and Manasseh were also reckoned as two tribes ; Levi occu- 
pying the ground immediately contiguous to the tabernacle enclosure, jmd therefore 
not available as one of the twelve which in four triads must form the square within 
which Jehovah dwelt and reigned. But in the dying benediction of Moses (Deut. 
xxxiii.), as in that of Jacob (Gen. xlix.), Levi occupies his place as one of the 
twelve, while the name of Joseph appears instead of Ephraim and Manasseh. So 
in Ezekiel (xlviii.), Ephraim and Manasseh are counted as two tribes when the 
division of the restored Canaan is the theme, but are reckoned as only one when 
in the same chapter the twelve gates of the restored Jerusalem are mentioned. In 
the Apocalypse also (vii. 5-8) the twelve is carefully adhered to by the mention 
of Levi and Joseph as representatives of tribes in the enumeration of those who 
were sealed. 



SYMBOLISM OF NUMBER AND FORM. 207 



apostles, even when by the calling of Paul it consisted 
of thirteen, the weight of evidence is augmented. The 
fact that twelve is associated with the promise that 
Ishmael should become a nation, 1 and again with the 
record that the promise was fulfilled, 2 adds something 
more to the proof. It is alleged in addition that heathen 
nations originally divided their territory, if not their 
population, into twelve parts to correspond to the divis- 
ions of the zodiac. 3 Even the model republic of Plato 
was conformed in its equal segments to the ideal twelve. 4 
If, then, twelve was the ecumenical signature of a 
nation, so that Jacob's family must be conformed to it 
by addition or subtraction in case his sons had been 
more or less than this number, the question respecting 
the ground of this significance remains unanswered. 
There is still room for difference of opinion: some 
deriving the usage from the custom among the heathen 
of conforming their institutions to the features of nature, 
according to which they divided a country, as they 
believed the heavens were divided, into twelve parts ; and 
others from numerical speculations similar to those by 
which we have endeavored to explain the significance of 
other numbers. We have already intimated our belief 
that these speculations are older than the divisions of the 
zodiac ; and for this reason, as well as on account of 
the very decided antagonism evident in Mosaism to any 
remnant of an astronomical religion, 5 accept the theory 

1 Gen. xvii. 20. 2 Gen. xxv. 16. 

3 Bahr : Symbolik, vol L p. 203 et seq. * Plato : De Legibus, vi. 758. 

5 Probably the only allusion in the Old Testament to the twelve signs of the 
zodiac is in the account of the reformation of religion by King Josiah, who put 
down the idolatrous priests that burned incense " to the sun, and to the moon, and 
to the twelve signs, and to all the host of heaven" (2 Kings xxiii. 5, marginal 
reading). 



2o8 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



which traces the significance of twelve to philosophical 
speculation. What were the particular processes of 
thought which determined the significance of twelve, it 
may be impossible to learn ; but it does not seem incredi- 
ble that in the time of the patriarchs men should have 
reasoned as fancifully as Augustine did, who thought that 
the number of the tribes of Israel and of the apostles 
was significant because the parts of seven — that is, three 
and four — multiplied together produce twelve. 1 

But, in whatever way twelve acquired its symbolic 
power, there is reason to believe that, where the estab- 
lished religion was a cosmical pantheism, this number 
was the symbol of a country spread out toward the four 
points of the compass, and enjoying the favor of the 
gods, and that in Mosaism it symbolized the Hebrew 
people as a nation divinely organized and governed. 2 

1 De Civitate Dei, xv. 20. See also Sermo III. on Ps. cxiii 

2 Readers who are especially interested in the symbolism of number are 
referred to monographs by Kurtz (Die symbolische Dignitat der Zahlen an der 
Stiftshiitte) in Studien und Kritiken, 1844; by Kliefoth (Die Zahlensymbolik 
der heiligen Schrift) in Theologische Zeitschrift, Schwerin, 1862 ; by Leyrer ( Zahlen 
bei den Hebraern, in Hertzog's Real-Encyklopadie ; and by Hadley (The Number 
Seven) in the New Englander, 1858, and reprinted in Essays Philological and Critical, 
New York, 1873. 



CHAPTER VI. 



SYMBOLISM OF COLOR. 

The symbolism of color in the tabernacle was confined 
to the curtains of the edifice and the garments of its 
priesthood, both of which were of fine-twined linen, 
blue, purple, and crimson. The four colors here indi- 
cated all inhered in the same material subjected to 
different processes of manufacture ; the fine thread of 
the byssus being in one process bleached to the greatest 
possible whiteness, and in the other three dyed with 
blue, purple, and crimson. 

That white linen was employed as a symbol, appears 
from many passages of the New Testament where its 
significance is declared and explained. It was a repre- 
sentative of light, resembling it somewhat in color, 1 but 
more in brightness 2 and purity. 3 In the realm of 
spiritual ideas, it was the synonyme of light itself 
employed as a symbol. For example : the garment of 
white in which the Ancient of Days was clothed when 
Daniel saw him in vision, 4 seated on his throne of fire, 
was equivalent to the verbal metaphor, God is light, 



1 Matt. xvii. 2. 
8 Rev. xix. 8, 14 ; xv. 6. 
18* 



2 Luke ix. 29, xxiv. 4 ; Mark ix. 3. 
4 Dan. vii. 9. 

209 



2io SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

whatever that may signify. No other interpretation of 
the white garment will, in this case, be consistent with 
the remaining imagery of the vision. The passage which 
speaks of it is, as the English translators believed, 
parallel with one in the Book of Psalms, in which 
Jehovah is said to cover himself with light as with a 
garment. 1 The garments of the transfigured Christ are 
said by Matthew to have been " white as the light ; " 2 and 
Mark declares that they "became shining, exceeding 
white as snow, so as- no fuller on earth can white 
them." 3 But light, as well as whiteness, is both splendid 
and pure. Either symbol may represent either idea as 
its chief, but not as its only meaning. The light in 
which God clothes himself is splendid, but it is also 
pure. He is holy, but he is also glorious. The light 
symbolizes him as glorious in his holiness, or as pure in 
his unapproachable and dazzling splendor, whichever 
idea may for the time be most prominent. 

White raiment is mentioned in the Scriptures as a 
symbol appropriate not only to God and the angels, but 
to holy men ; 4 in which case the leading and prominent 
idea is necessarily that of ethical purity, though the 
element of splendor is not wanting ; for there is in all 
true holiness, however devoid of position and power, a 
glory which dazzles or rejoices the beholder according as 
he is himself a child of darkness, or of light. 

The writer of the Apocalypse, in his description of 
the marriage of the Lamb, defines the significance of the 
white robes in which the bride was attired. He says in 
so many words, " The fine linen is the righteousness of 
saints." 5 Holiness is in this case the principal idea, as 

i Ps. civ. 2. 2 Matt. xvii. 2. 3 Mark ix. 3. * Rev. xix. 8, via. 14. 5 Rev. xix. 8. 



SYMBOLISM OF COLOR. 



211 



it always is an idea inseparable from white raiment 
employed as a religious symbol. Holiness, then, is 
signified by white linen, wherever found in the tabernacle. 
Whether it relates to God or to man, the symbol repre- 
sents purity, and its accompanying splendor ; the latter so 
great in the holiness of the Holy One of Israel, as to be 
an important element in the composite idea, but less 
conspicuous in the derived holiness of his covenant 
people. Moses himself informed us what the fine-twined 
linen denoted, when he termed the white apparel, in 
which the high-priest officiated at the annual expiation, 
" the holy garments." 1 

The Hebrew word rendered blue is primarily the 
name of a shell-fish, and derivatively of the dye yielded 
by it. As the word is nowhere in the Old Testament 
affixed to any of the hues of nature, we look in vain to 
the Hebrew Scriptures for aid in determining whether 
it is correctly rendered " blue," and, if so, what shade of 
that color it represents. Its equivalent in the Septua- 
gint is a word applied by the ancients to the clear 
firmament and the deep sea.' Philo and Josephus agree 
with the Septuagint in the selection of a Greek equiva- 
lent, and testify that the color intended is that of the 
sky. 2 We are to understand, however, a darker sky than 
that of New England or Old England ; for in the lands 
of the Bible the atmosphere is clearer, 3 and the firma- 
ment consequently deeper and darker, than in moister 
climates. There are days when even in northern lati- 



1 Lev. xvi. 4, 32. 

2 Philo : De Vita Mosis, liber III. Josephus : Antiq., liber III. c. vi. § 4. 
8 Thomson : The Land and the Book, vol. i. p. 1 7. 



212 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

tudes the transparency of the sky seems to extend to an 
infinite depth, as if it were 

" No domain 
For fickle, short-lived clouds to occupy 
Or to pass through ; but rather an abyss 
In which the everlasting stars abide, 
And whose soft gloom and boundless depth might tempt 
The curious eye to look for them by day." 

The fact that the ancients attributed the same hue 
both to the firmament and to the sea, also indicates that, 
when speaking of the heavens as blue, they had in mind 
a very dark shade of that color, such as is reflected from 
the peculiarly saline waters of the Mediterranean. 1 

The color, then, being a deep cerulean, or marine, it 
is said that the Egyptians painted or clothed with it the 
images of those gods who ruled in the firmament, or 
controlled the sea. 2 

There is no reason to believe that the blue found in 
the Mosaic institutions ever referred to water, or that 
Moses had any occasion to symbolize that element. It 
is, however, to be presumed that, in the pictorial repre- 
sentation of the system of truth he was commissioned 
to teach, he would need something to suggest the idea 
of heaven as a place where God reveals himself more 
fully than on earth ; and, if so, what would he more natu- 
rally employ than the color of heaven as visible from 
the earth? — this being a sign whose symbolism was 
founded in nature, and established in usage. 

1 New American Cyclopedia, art. Mediterranean. See also in Andrews' Latin 
■Lex., Caeruleus. 

2 Eusebius : Praeperatio Evangelica, iii. n ; Creuzer, iv. 595 ; and Jer. x. 9. 



SYMBOLISM OF COLOR. 



213 



If he would represent that Jehovah, whose dwelling is 
in heaven, had come down to earth to dwell with his 
covenant people, how could he do it better than by 
employing in the habitation made with hands the azure 
hue of the visible heaven ? If he wished to teach that 
the priests, and the sacrifices they offered, were an 
" example and shadow of heavenly things," 1 how perti- 
nent would it be to weave into their official attire threads 
of that cerulean tint, which in his day communicated 
such thoughts to the eye as are now conveyed to the 
ear by the audible pronunciation of the word heaven ! 

We find in the Scriptures, outside of the symbolic 
institutions established by Moses, and even outside of all 
representations given through human instrumentality, 
some instances in which God made symbolic use of the 
color under consideration; and in these instances its 
correspondence with heaven as the object symbolized is, 
if possible, even more evident than when employed by 
Moses. 

When the covenant was ratified at Sinai, Moses, 
Aaron, and seventy of the elders of Israel, by divine 
direction ascended the mountain, and, apart from the 
mass of their brethren, were favored with a vision of 
Jehovah. " They saw the God of Israel : and there was 
under his feet as it were a work of clear 2 sapphire, and 
as it were the body of heaven in its clearness." 3 The 
word sapphire is the same in the original Hebrew as in 
English, so that there is no reason to doubt that these 

1 Heb. viii. 5. 

2 Gesenius defines the word which the English version renders paved as equiva- 
lent to clear: Pi^^l, from HJ? 1 ?, clearness, and not from T\)2h t abaick. 

8 Exod. xxiv. 10. 



2 14 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



chosen representatives of the covenant nation saw in their 
vision a blue color under the feet of Jehovah like that of 
the gem still called, as it was then, sapphire — a color still 
further described by Moses as similar to the body of 
heaven in its clearness. That this gem was selected 
purposely, and with discrimination, to illustrate the glory 
which accompanied the God of Israel in his descent 
from heaven, is evident from its recurrence in a parallel 
instance of later date. In the vision which opens the 
Book of Ezekiel, the sapphire is again employed to 
represent the heavenly glory of Jehovah ; but it is not, 
as in Exodus, a floor of this translucent blue under his 
feet that is seen, but a throne of sapphire on which he 
sits exalted over four cherubic symbols of his redeemed 
creation. 1 

What can the blue gem employed in these two 
tableaux indicate, but that the God who thus revealed 
himself on Sinai and by the River Chebar, was an 
inhabitant and a king in heaven, as distinguished from 
earth, that he lived and reigned in the beautiful expanse 
which glows like sapphire over our heads ? If this be 
the symbolic significance of the gem, its meaning must 
be due to its color ; and the same color must have the 
same meaning when produced by the art of the dyer as 
when found in nature. 

We conclude, then, that blue in the tabernacle is the 
chromatic signature of heaven, or of heavenliness, and 
that symbols tinged with this color represent things 
which in their origin or nature are heavenly. 

Cloth of purple was much prized by the Greeks and 
Romans, who included under this appellation a wide 

1 Ezek. i. 26, x. 1. 



SYMBOLISM OF COLOR. 215 

range of color, extending from red slightly tinged with 
blue to shades in which the blue was predominant ; the 
dye being in all cases derived from shell-fish. From 
this habit of comprising under purple all shades that 
can be produced by mixing red and blue, it resulted, in 
the first place, that this appellation was given to fabrics 
closely resembling in color the cerulean of the clear 
firmament ; and, in the second place, that this cerulean 
blue was confounded by some modern scholars with 
purples containing a large admixture of red. 1 

Many shades of purple having been produced by the 
art of the dyer in the stage of advancement it had 
reached at the time of the Roman emperors, there was 
perhaps as much diversity in the value as in the color of 
the cloths manufactured. All purples of the sea, as 
those derived from shell-fish began to be called after 
counterfeit purples from vegetable dyes had made their 
appearance, were esteemed, but some much more than 
others by reason of their peculiar gorgeousness, espe- 
cially those changeable fabrics which with every move- 
ment of the cloth reflected a new style of splendor. 
Some fashions were much costlier than others for the 
reason that the liquid in which they were dyed was 
obtained from a species of shell-fish yielding it in very 
minute quantities, while others could be produced from 
a different species affording a much larger supply. 

Several cities on or near the eastern shores of the 
Mediterranean were celebrated for the manufacture of 
cloth of purple, each having its specialty. Of these, 
Tyre and Thyatira should be here mentioned ; the latter 
because allusion is made in the New Testament to its 

1 For a disentanglement of the confusion, see Bahr : Symbolik, vol. i. p. 30 5. 



2l6 



SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



trade in purple, 1 and the former because its fabric is 
so frequently mentioned in Latin literature, and with so 
high commendation of its beauty. 2 

In the earlier days of Rome, purple had been worn 
only by magistrates as a badge of office ; but the 
progress of wealth and luxury was afterward so great, 
that the first of the emperors thought it necessary to 
put restriction on the use of it in order to preserve 
the significance of the ancient symbol. 3 Still more 
stringent decrees were issued by emperors of later date, 
till certain fabrics of this color, including those held in 
highest estimation, were entirely interdicted to the 
Roman citizen, and reserved for the exclusive use of 
the imperial household. 4 

In the employment of purple as a mark of official 
distinction, the Romans followed the custom of some, if 
not all older nations. The king of Ithaca, if we may 
believe Homer, wore a mantle of this color at the siege 
of Troy ; 5 the kings of Midian were clothed in purple 
raiment when slain by the Hebrews under Gideon. 6 
The Chaldean king, Belshazzar, offered to any one who 
would interpret for him the fearful writing on the wall, 
that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom, and 
wear purple and gold as appropriate insignia of his high 
position. 7 

Not only kings, emperors, and their subordinates in 
civil authority, wore this color, but sometimes priests, as 
a mark of honor to their office and the deities whom 

1 Acts xvi. 14. 2 Andrew's Latin Lex., Tyrius. 3 Suetonius, Cass. 43. 

4 Dion Cassius Cocceianus, xlix. 16, lvii. 13. Suetonius, Nero, 32. Gibbon, 
Decline and Fall. ch. xl. § iii. 

5 Odyssey, xix. 225. 6 Judg. viii. 26. ' Dan, v. 7, margin. 



SYMBOLISM OF COLOR. 



217 



they served. 1 Even the images of the gods were 
adorned with raiment of purple. 2 

What, now, can we learn from these customs of other 
ancient nations respecting the import of purple among 
the Hebrews ? 

It must have been with them, as with their contem- 
poraries and neighbors, a mark of distinction suggesting 
the idea of royal majesty and authority. Its appearance 
in the curtains of the tabernacle marked that central 
edifice as the habitation of the Ruler of the encampment. 
The purple in the garments of the priests indicated that 
they belonged to the royal household, and were officers 
of the King. 

The two Hebrew words which taken together are 
rendered " scarlet " in the authorized version, denote a 
color derived from an insect called by naturalists 
coccus ilicis, found in large quantities on certain species 
of the oak. The Arabic name of the insect is kermes, 
the root of our word crimson. The dye was therefore a 
crimson, rather than a scarlet, red. 3 The only natural 
object to which the tint is applied in the Old Testament 
is the lips. 4 Philo says it is " similar to fire because 
each is red;" 6 Josephus speaks of it as a natural 
emblem of fire ; 6 and Pliny describes it as a gay, lively, 
bright red, approaching the color of fire. 7 

1 Braun : Vestitus Sacerdotum Hebraeorum, lib. I. p. 216. 

2 Jer. x. 9 ; Baruch vi. 12, 71. 

3 A scarlet dye is now procured from the coccus cacti, or cochineal of commerce 
(which is similar to, and has superseded the coccus ilicis) by adding to it a solution 
of tin in muriatic acid. But this modification of the natural tint is a modern 
discovery. See Beckmann's History of Inventions. 

4 Song of Solomon iv. 3. 6 De Vita Mosis. 

6 Antiq. III. vii. §7. 7 Hist. Nat. ix. 65 and xxi. 22. 

19 



218 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

In Hebrew usage, the specific name which the color 
derived from the insect is, with few exceptions, applied 
only to thread or cloth. If there be no other, there is at 
least one exception, namely, in the passage, "Though 
your sins be .as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow ; 
though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool," 1 
where the prophet divides the two words which ordinarily 
denote the insect dye, using one in the first, and the other 
in the second clause. Commonly the Hebrews employ 
the more generic adam to signify red ; but that the name 
of the insect dye when applied to cloth was synonymous 
with adam, is evident from the passage quoted above 
from Isaiah, where sins are characterized as red like 
crimson. 

It being settled that the fourth - sacred color of Mo- 
saism was crimson, we are prepared to seek for its 
significance by a comparison of cases in which it was 
used as a symbol or figure. We will first examine 
instances where the peculiar tint of the coccus is 
specified, and afterward some in which red is mentioned 
without specification. 

The earliest mention of the coccus is in the record of 
the birth of Zarah and Pharez, twin sons of Judah, born 
in Canaan before the Israelites went down to Egypt. 
A thread of crimson was used to mark the elder of the 
twins. 2 

In the ritual prescribed by Moses for the cleansing of 
the leper, two birds alive and clean, cedar-wood, crimson 
of the coccus, and hyssop, having been provided, one of 
the birds was killed over living water ; and the living 
bird, the cedar-wood, the crimson, and the hyssop 



i Isa. i. 18. 



2 Gen. xxxviii. 28. 



SYMBOLISM OF COLOR. 



219 



having been dipped in the blood of the bird slain over 
living water, the living bird was set at liberty, and the 
leper was sprinkled seven times with the mixture of 
blood and water in which these symbols had been 
dipped. 1 

When the water of separation was prepared, by means 
of which persons denied by contact with a dead body 
might be purified of their uncleanness, and restored to 
fellowship with Jehovah and the covenant people, the 
crimson of the coccus was an ingredient joined with 
cedar-wood and hyssop, as in the lustration of the leper 2 

A line of crimson thread was given by the spies of 
Joshua to Rahab, with directions to suspend it from the 
window of her house over the city-wall, as their pledge 
that, in the destruction of Jericho, she should be 
preserved alive. 3 

From this comparison of cases, it seems probable that 
the crimson of the coccus was a symbol of life. In the 
case of the twins, the thread marked the first-born, and 
proved his right of primogeniture. In the ritual for 
cleansing a leper, the " two birds alive and clean " were 
natural emblems of the restoration of one who as a 
leper had been unclean, and excluded from personal and 
from representative participation in the services of the 
sanctuary. The blood of the slain bird was a symbol of 
the blood or life of a man, which he had forfeited, and 
paid by his substitute ; 4 and the release of the other 
represented, even to an inexperienced eye, the restor- 
ation of the leper to the freedom and fellowship of the 
people of God ; or, in other words, to life in the sense of 
membership in the holy community over which Jehovah 

1 Lev. xiv. 4-7. ^ Num. xii. 6. 3 josh. ii.-i8. * Lev. xvii. u. 



220 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

reigned. The dipping of the live bird in the blood of 
the other could signify nothing else than the lustration 
of its principal by the vicarious sacrifice of the life 
which had been taken : the addition of pure water and 
hyssop, both well-established symbols of purification, 
added emphasis to the ceremony. What, then, was the 
import of the two remaining symbols, — the cedar-wood 
and the crimson ? Cedar, as one of the most durable of 
woods, was a fit emblem of the continuance of life : 
crimson, by its resemblance to the color of health and 
vital energy, was equally appropriate as a symbol of life 
in its fulness and vigor. Such must be its meaning 
when, in the Song of Solomon, the lips of the bride are 
said to be like a thread of crimson. The significance of 
this color, as an ingredient in the water of separation, 
was doubtless the same as in the lustration of a leper. 
The application of it to a person who, by contact with a 
corpse, had been brought into rapport with death, was 
a sign that he was now restored to fellowship with the 
living and life-giving Jehovah. The line of crimson 
thread suspended from the window of Rahab was to her, 
and to the investing host of Hebrews, a symbol, as well 
as a pledge, of life. 

We are not unmindful that the examples here pre- 
sented to illustrate the symbolic meaning of crimson 
prove, if they prove any thing, that it symbolized life in 
different senses. In the first and last of the instances 
cited, the crimson had reference to natural life, and in 
the others to that figurative life which was equivalent 
to participation in the kingdom of God. But, if life 
was used in these two different senses, that which 
stood for it in one would naturally and appropriately 



SYMBOLISM OF COLOR. 



221 



stand for it in the other plane of thought. Indeed, the 
two senses are so graded one into another in Mosaism, 
that, in most cases where life is spoken of as forfeited, it 
makes but little difference whether one understands 
natural or theocratic life ; since, if either were forfeited, 
the forfeiture of the other would be involved as a neces- 
sary consequence. 

We proceed now to the examination of cases in 
which a red color other than that of the coccus, or not 
specifically described as such, appears to represent life. 

An example of this is found in the Book of Lamenta- 
tions, where Jeremiah speaks of the princes of Jerusalem 
as " whiter than milk, and more ruddy in body than 
rubies." 1 Another is in the Song of Solomon, where the 
bridegroom is described as white and ruddy. 2 In the 
same book, the bride is said to have not only lips like a 
thread of crimson, but cheeks like pieces of pomegran- 
ate. 3 The fruit here mentioned is round and rosy ; so 
that not only the crimson lips, but the cheeks, which 
could be likened to segments of pomegranate, were 
tokens of life in the fulness of its vigor. 

The Hebrew word adorn, the proper name of the first 
man, and the common name of all men, was, according 
to Gesenius, derived from the verb adam, to be red. 
According to the same authority, dom, signifying blood, 
is also from the verb adam. Such a relationship of 
words indicates a tendency in the Hebrew mind to 
conceive of man in his normal or ideal state as red, and 
to attribute this redness of his complexion to the blood 

1 Lam. iv. 7. The word which the English translators rendered Nazarites, is 
probably equivalent in this place to princes. See Gesenius' Lex. 

2 Song of Solomon v. 10. 3 Ibid. iv. 3. 

19* 



222 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

as the vital force. It is not necessary to our purpose to 
inquire in what sense they regarded the blood as equiva- 
lent to the life ; whether as identical with it, or as its 
vehicle, and visible representative. 1 The blood was 
certainly the soul, or life in such a sense that they might 
not with propriety eat it, and were accordingly forbidden 
to do so. 2 This prohibition, moreover, was not peculiar 
to Mosaism, but had been in force from the time of 
Noah ; 3 and the physiological theory on which the 
prohibition rested was not held by the Hebrews alone, 
for the opinion prevailed extensively, if not universally 
throughout the ancient world, that the blood of an 
animal is its life. 4 

Such views of the blood would naturally, in any 
system of symbolization, occasion the use of it as a 
visible representative of life, and might even lead to the 
employment of the red color as its synonyme. Accord- 
ingly, the Mosaic code speaks of the blood of aninials 
presented on the altar as atoning for the soul, or life of 
the offerer (which of course it could do only representa- 
tively or symbolically, for it is not possible that the 
blood of bullocks and of goats should really take away 
sin) ; and, when it gives the specifications of an animal 
to be used in the lustration of a person defiled by 
contact with death, it requires that the victim shall be 
not only without spot or blemish, as all sacrifices must 
be, but of the female or life-producing sex, of vital power 
undiminished by subjection to the yoke, and of a red 

1 This question is discussed at length in Delitzsch's Biblical Psychology. Edin- 
burgh, 1849. P- 281 et *eq. 

2 Lev. xvii. 10. 3 Gen. ix. 4. 

4 Virgil's jEneid, ix. 349 : Purpuream vomit ille animam. 



SYMBOLISM OF COLOR. 



223 



color, as an outward reflex of the red life within. " Just 
as in man the vital energy of the blood is manifested in 
the red cheeks and lips, and in the flesh-colored redness 
of the skin, so in the red cow the blood was regarded 
as possessing such vigor that it manifested itself 
outwardly in the corresponding color. The red hue of 
the cow was a characteristic sign of its fulness of life, 
and fitted it to become an antidote of the power of 
death." 1 

To this interpretation of red, the passage, " Though 
your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow ; 
though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool," 2 
appears, at first sight, strongly opposed. It has been 
customary to understand the scarlet and the crimson, 
here mentioned, as chromatic emblems, and to use this 
text for a key to the interpretation of red as a symbol of 
guilt. Usage has now well established such a relation, 
at least as respects blood-guiltiness ; but there is nothing 
in the literature of the Hebrews to indicate that they 
regarded redness as a symbol of murder, or of guilt in 
general, unless found in the place under consideration. 
But this passage, when critically examined, affords no 
evidence that the red color in general, or the coccus 
crimson in particular, is the sign of sin ; for another 
meaning is possible, which satisfies all the requirements 
of the context, and is not inconsistent with the symbolic 
significance of the color as determined by other passages. 
The crimson of the coccus was a very deep, bright 
color ; so that it may have been the difficulty of effacing 



1 Kurtz : Sacrificial Worship of the Old Testament, p. 427. 
Comm. on Num. xix. 2-10. 

2 Isa. i. 18. 



See also Keil: 



224 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

it, rather than the color itself, which gave emphasis to 
the language Jehovah employed to characterize the sins 
of his people. 

We conclude, then, that the fourth of the sacred colors 
of Mosaism represented life ; deriving this significance 
from blood, which was itself the vehicle and represen- 
tative of the vital force. 



CHAPTER VII. 



SYMBOLISM OF MINERALS. 

We have now to learn the significance of various 
substances from the realm of nature found in the 
symbolism of the tabernacle. We take up first those 
which belong to the mineral kingdom. The list includes 
salt, gold, silver, copper, and twelve different kinds of 
gems. 

Salt was in ancient times, and is even now in the 
Orient, a pledge of fidelity in friendship, so that " to eat 
bread and salt together is an expression for a league of 
mutual amity ; and, on the other hand, the Persian term 
for traitor is nemekharam, faithless to salt." 1 Hence 
"covenant of salt" is equivalent to inviolable engage- 
ment in the passage where God says to Aaron, " All the 
heave-offerings of the holy things, which the children of 
Israel offer unto the Lord, have I given thee, and thy 
sons and thy daughters with thee, by a statute forever : 
it is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord unto thee 
and to thy seed with thee ; " 2 and also in the passage 
where the king of Judah says to Jeroboam and his 
adherents, " Ought ye not to know that the Lord God of 
Israel gave the kingdom over Israel to David forever, 
even to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt ? " 3 

1 Smith's Bible Dictionary, art. Salt. 2 Num. xviii. 19. 3 2 Chron. xiii. 5. 

225 



226 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

This idea of fidelity proceeds from the preservative 
qualities of the symbol, which caused it to signify incor- 
ruptibleness, or unchangeableness, on the higher plane of 
the spirit, as well as on the lower level of earthly things ; 
and it was, doubtless, as a sign of faithful adherence 
to an engagement that both the Hebrews 1 and the 
heathen 2 added salt to every sacrifice, whether of animal 
or vegetable substances, that was offered on their altars. 

Gold, silver, and jewels, have in all ages and in all 
countries been regarded as significant of wealth, rank, 
and power. The use of the precious metals for money 
has, however, rendered it impossible that they should 
exert in modern times as much influence on the imagi- 
nation as when used only as insignia. • It is quite certain 
that in the time of Moses gold had not been coined, and 
was not often used, even by weight, as a medium of 
exchange. It always had been, and still was, reserved, 
as jewels are now, to adorn the persons and dwellings of 
the wealthy, and furnish badges of distinction for persons 
of rank. When Joseph was elevated to a place of honor 
and power inferior only to that of the monarch, Pharaoh 
arrayed him in vestures of fine byssus, and put a gold 
chain about his neck. When, in later times, another 
Hebrew slave rose to high rank in a Gentile nation, 
becoming the third ruler in the kingdom of the 
Chaldeans, the servants of Belshazzar, at his command, 
clothed Daniel in purple, 3 and " put a chain of gold 
about his neck," uniting the two symbols to illustrate 
the high position to which he was advanced. It was a 
golden sceptre which the king of Persia extended to the 

i Xev. ii. 13. 2 Pliny xxxi. 41. 3 Dan. v. 7, margin. 



SYMBOLISM OF MINERALS. 227 

trembling queen who had forfeited her life by intruding 
uncalled into his presence, as a pledge that the power of 
life and death represented by the sceptre should be 
exerted in her behalf. 

Gold was also used by the heathen in the manufacture 
of images of their principal gods ; inferior deities being 
represented by less precious materials, as silver, copper, 
iron, wood, and stone. 1 In many cases where the surface 
of the idol was of gold, the metal was only a thin sheet 
laid over a shape of wood. 2 Sometimes, however, images 
of even colossal height were wholly of gold, the plate 
being so thick as to need no wood for its support. 
Diodorus Siculus mentions three statues of beaten gold 
in the temple of Belus at Babylon, the smallest of which, 
weighing eight hundred Babylonian talents, contained at 
least twice as much gold as was deemed sufficient for 
the Hebrew tabernacle and all the golden vessels of its 
ministry. The same precious metal served also to gild 
the walls of heathen temples, and furnished the material 
for tables, bowls, cups, and other sacred utensils. 

There is a warrant in nature, as well as in the universal 
custom of antiquity, for this employment of the most 
splendid of the metals to illustrate the highest possible 
dignity and glory ; for it never fails to excite in the 
mind of the beholder feelings of admiration and awe. 
Even in modern times, though it has to some extent lost 
by excessive use its power of symbolization, gold suggests 
wealth and power. Much more impressive must it have 
been in the early ages, when it had not been used as 
money, and in countries where very few were able to 
possess the smallest ornaments of so rare material. 



1 Dan. v. 4. 



2 Isa. xl. 19 ; Jer. x. 4 ; Hab. ii. 19. 



228 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

Hence, as an emblem, it was among metals what purple 
was among colors, and found its most appropriate place 
on the persons and in the habitations of kings and gods. 

The dedication of a large amount of gold to the service 
of religion was, therefore, not peculiar to the Hebrews. 
It was the universal custom of the age thus to do homage 
to the objects of worship. But, as Mosaism allowed no 
images of Jehovah, the symbolism of gold must be con- 
fined to his habitation and its furniture. It is worthy of 
observation, then, that the God of the Hebrews dwelt in 
a golden house. If, as we believe, the innermost curtain 
hung down on the outside of the wooden frame, the 
interior of the dwelling reflected everywhere from its 
walls the splendor of gold to represent that the highest 
honor was due, and was rendered, to the occupant. The 
furniture of the holy habitation was also, without excep- 
tion, golden. In some articles there was wood beneath 
an exterior plate of metal, to give adequate strength 
without excessive weight ; but otherwise all utensils 
within the sanctuary, even to the snuffers and snuff- 
dishes for trimming the lamp-wicks, were wholly of pure 
gold, to symbolize as emphatically as possible the majesty 
of Jehovah. 

If the tabernacle of Jehovah was splendid by contrast 
between it and the ordinary tents of the surrounding 
encampment, it seems to have been designedly rendered 
still more splendid by the ordained distinction between 
the tabernacle and its court. For while the walls of the 
dwelling, and all its utensils, were of gold, so that with 
the exception of the sill (of which we shall have occa- 
sion to speak hereafter) no other metal was visible 
within, the furniture of the court must, according to the 



SYMBOLISM OF MINERALS. 



229 



specifications furnished to Moses, be of copper. The 
only exception to this requirement was founded in a 
reason which allowed wood beneath the gold in the ark 
of the covenant, the altar of incense, and the table of 
show-bread. The altar of the court, so far as relates to 
its appearance and symbolism, was of metal ; but, that it 
might not be too heavy for transportation, the copper 
was laid on in thin sheets over wood. 

The significance of copper seems to depend chiefly on 
its rank among the metals, being more esteemed than 
iron, and less so than silver and gold. 1 As a metal of 
honor and beauty, it was an appropriate material for the 
utensils of divine service, and by its inferiority to gold 
furnished a background on which the latter seemed 
more splendid by contrast. Its resemblance to gold 
deepened the symbolic significance conveyed by the 
exclusive use of one of the metals in the court, and of 
the other within the habitation. 

Between the copper outside and the gold inside of the 
house, silver was the mediating metal ; being found both 
in the sill of the sanctuary, and on the caps of the pil- 
lars around the sacred enclosure, to indicate by another 
sign that the house was higher in honor than the area in 
front, — so much higher that its sill was of the same 
material as the crowning ornament of the court. 

Silver was at that time in common use as money ; if 
not in the shape of coin, certainly of bullion, which, when 
weighed, was current with the merchant. 2 Now, this 
silver which had been wrought partly into the sill of the 
tabernacle, and partly into the caps of the pillars around 
the court, had been used as money. Indeed, it came 

1 Dan. v. 4; Isa. lx. 17. 2 Gen. xxiii. 16. 

20 



SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



into the possession of Moses in half -shekels which the. 
people had paid as " atonement money," " every man a 
ransom for his soul." 1 There is a record of free-will 
offerings of silver, but none of the use of any other 
silver in the construction of the edifice than the 
ransom-money ; and the amount of this being given with 
exactness, and the several sums used for the sill-pieces and 
for the pillars of the court with their hooks and connect- 
ing rod, when added, corresponding in amount with the 
aggregate yield of the tax, one is shut up to the conclu- 
sion that, however the silver of the free-will offerings 
was used, it did not enter into the construction of the 
edifice. 2 It is evident that the silver which thus medi- 
ated between the copper of the court and the gold of 
the edifice, consisted wholly of the money paid by the 
males of the congregation from twenty years old upward 
for their ransom. The services of the court culminated 
in redemption ; and not till they were redeemed could 
the people, even representatively, enter the sanctuary. 
The shining silver on the top of the pillars of the 
enclosure was " a memorial to the children of Israel 
before Jehovah to make an atonement for their souls," 3 
i.e., a permanent reminder that their sins were expi- 
ated ; and the sill of the sanctuary, into which the 
greater part of the ransom-money had been molten, was 
a token that in Consequence of their redemption God 

1 Exod. xxx. 12, 16. 

2 The only utensils of silver mentioned are twelve chargers and twelve bowls, 
which were a special offering at the dedication, and two silver trumpets. So far as 
appears, the silver contributed at the commencement of the work, be it more or 
less, was not used in the construction of the edifice, or its furniture. Of course 
the artisans who gave their time and skill to the work must have been paid out of 
the public treasury, and it is not improbable that they were paid in silver. 

3 Exod. xxx. 1 6. 



SYMBOLISM OF MINERALS. 



231 



dwelt among them, and received them to his fellowship. 
The silver, "as an expiation for souls, pointed to the 
unholiness of Israel's nature, and reminded the people 
continually that by nature it was alienated from God, 
and could only remain in covenant with the Lord, and 
live in his kingdom, on the ground of his grace which 
covered its sin." 1 May not the apostle have had this 
ransom-money in mind when he said to the people of 
the new covenant, " Ye were not redeemed with corrupt- 
ible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious 
blood of Christ"? 2 

The precious stones, as well as the precious metals, 
have always been employed as badges of distinction. 
As in modern Europe the crown-jewels are insignia 
of supreme rank and power; so, in the despotisms of 
antiquity, costly gems of different kinds were worn by 
the monarch, either habitually or on special occasions, as 
expressive signs of his supremacy. 

Twelve different species of gems were employed in 
the symbolism of the tabernacle to represent the twelve 
tribes of Israel. It is reasonable to infer from the 
particularity with which the specifications not only 
require that the stones should be of twelve different 
kinds and should be engraven each with the name of a 
tribe, but determine what kinds were to be used and in 
what order they were to be arranged, that each had 
some special significance appropriate to the tribe whose 
name it bore ; but, if so, this correspondence between 
the several tribes and their respective symbols cannot 
now be discovered. The sacred text does not definitely 

1 Keil, Comm. on Pentateuch, vol. ii. p. 212. 2 1 Peter, i. 18, 19. 



232 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



determine how the names of the tribes are to be placed 
so that they may correspond with the arrangement of 
the stones. They are sometimes mentioned in the 
order in which they marched and encamped; at other 
times there is reference to the different mothers of the 
sons of Jacob, those of the same mother being brought 
together ; and, according to a third method, the names 
stand in the order in which the twelve patriarchs were 
born. As the latter mode is specified for the names 
with which the two onyx-stones on the shoulders of the 
high-priest were to be engraven, it is highly probable 
that the same rule governed the collocation of the 
names which the same official bore on his heart. But, 
even if this were established beyond question, the 
difficulty remains that some of the stones cannot be 
identified with certainty by their Hebrew names. We 
must content ourselves with learning the significance of 
these gems taken collectively. The most natural inter- 
pretation, in view of the universal usage of antiquity 
continued in some degree even to our own time, is that 
they denote regal rank. 

At present, we can only allege that this is the 
meaning of jewels by the common consent of the world. 
In the sequel, we shall find that such an interpretation 
justifies itself by the harmonious and complemental 
relation with other symbols which it attributes to jewels 
in the only place in which they occur, namely, in the 
insignia of the high-priest. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



SYMBOLISM OF VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 

The symbols of the tabernacle derived from the 
vegetable kingdom are acacia, cedar, hyssop, flour, wine, 
oil, spices of different kinds, pomegranates, and almonds. 

Of the two sorts of timber which stand at the head 
of this list, the latter was used only in rites of purifica- 
tion, and therefore in small quantity. We have already 
explained it as being by its comparative incorruptibility a 
signature of life. 1 When the Hebrews, many generations 
later in their history, erected a stationary and permanent 
sanctuary at Jerusalem, cedar was used to cover the 
walls of the edifice on the interior surface, fulfilling thus 
the same office as the acacia in the tabernacle. Both 
having extraordinary durability, either might be employed 
to represent that idea; and, as they were equally 
beautiful, the question which of the two should be elected 
might be determined by considerations of convenience. 
Acacia, easily procured in the vicinity of Sinai, was by 
its small specific gravity preferable to cedar for the 
portable sanctuary of the wilderness : on the other hand, 
cedar could be conveniently obtained by Solomon from the 
Phoenicians in exchange for the productions of Palestine, 
and was as little liable to decay as acacia. The substi- 



20* 



1 P. 220. 



233 



SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



tution of cedar for acacia, because more conveniently 
obtained, goes to show that they were both significant 
by reason of the durability which belonged to them in 
common ; and the most natural interpretation of this 
capacity to resist corruption would make it indicate the 
idea of life. 

The justness of this interpretation is confirmed when 
we refer to the two cases where cedar-wood is used in 
the strictly Mosaic institutions ; namely, in the lustra- 
tion of lepers, and of persons defiled by contact with a 
dead body. In both these instances, the ceremonial 
evidently represents the restoration of a man to life, 
who, as respects the theocracy, was once alive, but is 
now dead. The kingdom of God among the Hebrews 
was a kingdom of life, from which the leper, and the 
person defiled by contact with a dead body, were cut off. 
Having been thus excluded from the privileges of the 
kingdom as if dead to it, they were restored to partici- 
pation in them by the prescribed lustration. The bit of 
cedar-wood, added to the other symbols by which such a 
revivification was represented, must be of concurrent 
and cumulative significance. It must have been 
designed to hold up to view one element in life, as the 
crimson of the coccus represented another. 

Hyssop, an aromatic shrub 1 used in applying the 
liquid prescribed for the removal of imparity, scarcely 
needs explanation. It was with the Hebrews, and per- 
haps with other ancient nations, an emblem of purifica- 
tion. This office may have been assigned it on account 

1 Probably a species of origanum or marjoram. See the article " Hyssop " in 
Smith's Bible Dictionary. 



SYMBOLISM OF VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 235 

of its agreeable aroma, so antagonistic to the offensive 
odor proceeding from disease and death. The writer of 
the Epistle to the Hebrews understood that Moses used 
this shrub, when the covenant was ratified at Sinai, in 
sprinkling the people and the manuscript copy of the 
mutual engagement ; though hyssop is not mentioned in 
the original record of the transaction. It was specifi- 
cally prescribed as a necessary item in the ceremonial 
for cleansing lepers, and those who had touched a dead 
body. It was employed by King David in a penitential 
psalm, 1 as a symbol deeply laden with the idea of 
purgation. 

Corn and wine, being associated in their symbolic use 
and significance, need not be separately interpreted. 

Agriculture, including grazing and tillage, having been 
appointed as the principal business of the Hebrews in 
the land of Canaan, symbols derived from both branches 
were woven into that system of outward signs, of which 
the tabernacle was the theatre. In the next chapter we 
shall have occasion to speak of flocks and herds ; but at 
present we have to do only with the products of tillage. 
Corn and wine were the principal fruits of this department 
of industry. Acquired by the sweat of his brow, in that 
calling which God had appointed as the chief business 
of his life, these results of the husbandman's diligence 
stood for the results of the entire work of his life, as a 
part may stand for the whole. Other fruits of tillage 
might perhaps have been added for the expression of 
this idea, but for one peculiarity which renders corn 
and wine eminently expressive. These substances, as 

1 Ps. li. 7, 



236 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



employed in the symbolism of sacrifice, were not merely 
products of agriculture ; for, after the earth had brought 
the corn and the grapes to maturity, much additional 
labor had been expended in the manufacture of the 
wheat into bread, and of the grapes into wine. The 
symbols chosen were not fruits of spontaneous growth, 
nor raw products of husbandry, but articles manufactured 
with skill and industry out of the fruits of the earth, and 
for that reason more apt for representing the results of 
human labor. 

Proceeding a step further in the examination of these 
substances, we find that, if cattle are left out of account, 
corn and wine were to be not only the principal fruits 
of Hebrew industry, but also the staple articles of food. 
This fact suggests the possibility that they may have 
been selected as symbols to be offered on the altar, with 
the intention that they should represent the results of 
labor in the form of enjoyment as well as of property. 
The Hebrew not only possessed but enjoyed the corn 
and wine for which he had wrought ; and the offering of 
them on the altar was an expression of desire to receive 
his covenant God into fellowship with himself in the 
enjoyment of that which the corn and wine symbolized. 

What, then, would the Hebrews naturally understand 
these results of labor to represent in the sphere of reli- 
gious thought ? Their earthly vocation was to produce 
corn and wine ; but they had a higher calling as the 
people of the covenant, namely, to bring forth in their 
lives the fruits of righteousness. Such results of labor 
in the field of their high calling would enrich them with 
durable riches, and " put gladness in their hearts more 
than in the time that their corn and their wine was 



SYMBOLISM OF VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 237 

increased." 1 The diligent and successful laborer would 
have greater enjoyment in these fruits of holiness than 
the husbandman in the edible produce of the earth. 

Moreover, these results of the work of life in the field 
of ethics, when laid on the altar of God, would give joy 
to him, as well as to those who had wrought to procure 
them. " With such sacrifices God is well pleased." 2 
The symbols which represented them he speaks of as " my 
bread;" 3 and the holiness of the priests is illustrated 
by the repeated mention of them in the law as " offering 
the bread of their God." 4 This bread of God was partly 
consumed on the altar, and partly eaten by the priests 
within the enclosure of the sanctuary ; the fellowship 
between Jehovah and the priestly nation appearing in 
this joint participation which symbolized the pleasure 
both experienced in the holiness of the peculiar people. 
Even a priest who by reason of bodily defect could not 
come nigh to offer the bread of his God was admitted to 
this participation. " He shall eat the bread of his God, 
both of the most holy, and of the holy : only he shall not 
go in unto the veil, nor come nigh unto the altar." 5 

It ought not to be offensive, that according to this 
interpretation the fruits of sanctification are conceived 
of as the bread of God, since he himself has sanctioned 
that method of speaking of the symbols ; and, if it is not 
too anthropomorphic to speak of the corn and wine 
offered on the altar as the bread of .God, certainly it is 
not irreverent to apply to the true bread of which they 
were the figure the same appellation, or to conceive of it 



1 Ps^iv. 7. 2 Heb. xiii. 16. 

3 Num. xxviii. 2. 4 Lev. xxi. 6, 8, 17, 21. 

6 Levi. xxi. 22, 23. 



238 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

as in some sense the food of Jehovah. Besides, it is 
the enjoyment, rather than the nutrition, ministered by 
food, which is shadowed forth by the symbols. They 
represent the results of sanctification, the joy a man 
experiences in that measure of improvement of which 
he is conscious. Now, if services of worship, and works 
of charity, are sacrifices with which God is well pleased, 
they are as truly means of enjoyment to him as to those 
who render them, and may without impropriety be 
termed the bread of God in the same figurative sense in 
which they are called, in reference to man, the bread of 
life. 

Accordant with this interpretation is the discourse of 
our Lord recorded by John, in which he says, " Labor 
not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat 
which endureth unto everlasting life." 1 Work, he 
means, not for corn and wine, but for holiness. And he 
counsels them, when they inquired how they should 
direct their efforts, to believe in him ; since he, and he 
alone, could impart to them this bread, being the only 
source from which men could receive sanctification. 

Olive-oil, another important product of Palestine, is 
found in the symbolism of the tabernacle. In domestic 
life, it answered three different purposes. It was to the 
Hebrews, as butter is to us, a palatable ingredient or 
accompaniment of bread ; it illuminated their dwellings 
with its flame ; it supplied what an arid climate 
rendered very desirable, an agreeable and salubrious 
unguent for the skin. 

In correspondence with these three methods of secular 

l John vi. 27. 



SYMBOLISM OF VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 239 



use, the oil of the olive served as a religious symbol, 
being applied, when mixed with certain spices, as a 
chrism both to persons and things ; furnishing fuel for 
the lamps of the holy place ; and accompanying, or enter- 
ing as an ingredient into, every offering of bread which 
was laid on the altar. This threefold use suggests, at 
first thought, three separate sources of symbolic signifi- 
cance ; but a longer study discloses a common root from 
which the three symbolic uses of the same substance 
have originated. 

Oil of unction must have derived its significance as a 
religious symbol from the effect it produced on the body 
when used in common life. Rendering the skin soft, 
smooth, and shining, its influence was not merely 
superficial, but invigorating to the whole system, pene- 
trating even to the bones. 1 It diminished the evaporation 
of the fluids of the body, from which those who dwell 
in hot and dry countries, and wear but little clothing, are 
liable to suffer. 2 It rendered the joints more supple, 
and the muscles more responsive to the vital force, and 
thus imparted new strength for the duties of life. Such, 
at least, was and still is the opinion of the Orientals, 
who are better qualified to judge of the effect of such 
an application of oil to the skin, in a region where 
the heat is sometimes intense and protracted, than the 
inhabitants of more northern regions. This use of oil 
was, however, by no means confined to the hottest 
season of the year. Custom rendered it so agreeable, 
that the Hebrews practised it daily, and omitted it only 
in times of mourning. 

1 Ps. cix. 18. 

2 K. Niebuhr's Description of Arabia, quoted in Kitto's Cyclopaedia in the 
article, Anointing. Livingstone's Travels in South Africa. New York, 1870. 
P. 122. 



SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



Anointing, as a symbolic transaction, may signify, 
then, that the person to whom the oil is applied is 
refreshed and strengthened by some spiritual gift 
imparted to him; and this meaning agrees with the 
context, and meets all the exigencies of the case when- 
ever one is inducted into an office by means of this 
ceremony. To anoint a priest or a king was to convey to 
him sacramentally the help of the* Spirit of God for the 
discharge of his official duty. The official designation 
of the person whom the Hebrews expected to come, and 
unite in himself the threefold function of prophet, priest, 
and king, was The Anointed. The prophet declares 
the nature of this anointing when he puts into the 
mouth of the expected Messiah the words, " The Spirit 
of the Lord God is upon me, because Jehovah hath 
anointed me;" 1 and Jesus himself, when in the syna- 
gogue at Nazareth he appropriated the words as his own 
utterance anticipatively reported by Isaiah, did by that 
very act claim not only to be The Anointed, but to be 
anointed with the Holy Spirit. 2 The New Testament, 
moreover, affirms in so many words that " God anointed 
Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with 
power." 3 

' The application of the anointing oil to the tabernacle 
and its furniture does not militate against such an 
interpretation ; for the ceremony signified that, as God 
imparted his Spirit to persons that they might be strong 
for the work to which he called them, so to these 
institutions that they might be efficient to accomplish 
the end for which they were- established. The ceremony 
was not without meaning when applied to things as well 

i Isa. lxi. i. 2 Luke iv. 18. 3 Acts x. 38. 



SYMBOLISM OF VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 241 

as persons, though its significance was secondary, and 
was derived from the custom of anointing the body to 
render it a more efficient instrument of the will. 

Anointing oil being, then, a symbol of the Holy Spirit 
received from God, and penetrating the whole man to 
refresh and invigorate him for work, the question arises, 
whether oil used otherwise than for anointing had, so 
far as the oil itself is concerned, the same significance, 
and differed from the oil of unction only as it was 
differently employed. 

There seems to be no reason for disbelieving that oil 
for illumination had the same symbolic power as anoint- 
ing oil. The lamps in the tabernacle when supplied with 
it gave a permanent and sufficient light, but without such 
supply could do nothing to dissipate the darkness : so 
the people of God shine as lights in the world only by 
reason of the constant influence upon them of his Spirit. 

At first thought, it may seem as if a different meaning 
must be given to oil mingled with or poured upon food- 
offerings from that which we have attributed to it when 
used for anointing or for burning. Some have contended 
that, being one of the food-products of the soil, it had 
exactly the same significance as corn and wine, concur- 
ring with them to represent the fruits of holiness 
produced by the diligence of God's people. But if the 
oil was an accompaniment, rather than an integral part 
of the food-offering, it is more natural to adhere to that 
interpretation which has already been justified in refer- 
ence to two out of the three methods in which oil was 
symbolically employed. The reasons for believing that 
the oil was a significant accompaniment, rather than an 

essential element of the food-offering, will be given when 
21 



SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



we come to the interpretation of sacrifices : at present 
only one is alleged, namely, that such a hypothesis 
enables us to give a uniform significance to oil through- 
out the Mosaic institutions. 

If, then, corn and wine without oil might represent 
food, what was the significance of the oil added to these 
substances to make them more palatable when presented 
as the bread of God ? It must mean, if interpreted as 
in the other methods of using it, that the only bread 
which would be acceptable to God, or could be offered on 
his altar, must be produced with the aid of his Spirit. 
In whatever way the oil was added, whether kneaded 
into the flour, or poured on the cakes after they were 
cooked, the addition of it signified that the grace of God 
must unite with the labor of man in the work of sancti- 
fication, and that it was the joint product of these two 
spiritual forces which the worshipper laid on the altar 
as the bread of God. 

Perfumes were much esteemed by the Hebrews, as 
well as by other Orientals, both ancient and modern. 
Being composed chiefly of spices, we include the con- 
sideration of them in this chapter, although one of the 
four ingredients of the perfume prepared for fumigating 
the holy place was derived from the animal kingdom. 
With this exception, the perfumes mentioned in Scrip- 
ture consist of vegetable substances. They were used 
both for fumigation, and, when mixed with oil, for unction. 
The preparation of them was a special profession, 1 
requiring instruction and experience for the attainment 
of skill ; and sometimes the materials employed were 

i Exod. xxx. 25, 35 ; Eccl. x. 1. 



SYMBOLISM OF VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 243 



such as could be procured only in small quantities, and 
must be brought from remote countries. The best 
perfumes, consequently, were expensive; a small package, 
which might be spent in a single application to one 
person, costing sometimes nearly or quite fifty dollars. 1 

Both these species of perfume were employed not only 
in the luxury of private life, but in the symbolism of 
religion. The fragrance of four precious spices was 
imparted to the oil with which the tabernacle and its 
priests were consecrated, distinguishing it from the pure 
oil used in anointing a person recovered from leprosy. 
The incense burned in the holy place was a compound 
prepared by adding three other odorous substances, two 
of them vegetable, and the third the operculum of a 
shell-fish, to the raw frankincense offered in the court. 
The eight different substances thus employed need not 
be separately named and studied, since it does not appear 
that the fragrance they produced differed in its signifi- 
cance from other equally pleasant odors. 

The holy oil of unction derived from the four spices 
with which it was compounded the power of diffusing 
an aroma not to be excelled in sweetness, and was there- 
fore fit to represent the joy produced by the Holy Spirit 
both in him who is anointed with it, and in those who 
surround him. That perfumed oil was a sign of joy, 
appears further from the custom of omitting unction on 
fast-days, and during the customary period of mourning 
for the dead ; 2 from the manner in which the Book of 
Isaiah mentions the oil of joy, contrasting it with mourn- 
ing ; 3 from the mode in which the psalmist employs the 
figure of sacerdotal oil to illustrate the pleasantness of 

1 Mark xiv. 5. 2 2 Sam. xiv. 2; Dan. x. 3; Matt. vi. 17. 3 Isa. lxi. 3. 



244 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

brotherly concord, 1 and especially from the congratula- 
tory address to the king, " Thy throne, O God, is for ever 
and ever : the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. 
Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness : there- 
fore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of 
gladness above thy fellows." 2 

There can be no doubt that perfumed oil, in distinc- 
tion from that which was pure, was conceived of in this 
address to the king ; for the psalmist continues, " All 
thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out 
of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad." 
But the same evidence which proves it to have been 
perfumed shows also that it was not identical in its 
composition with the precious ointment of the sanctuary 
which, when poured on the head of Aaron, ran down on 
his beard, and went down to the skirts of his garments. 
Two of the spices mentioned as perfuming the raiment 
of the king were ingredients, and constituted two-thirds 
of the whole weight of spicery in the chrism with which 
the priests and the tabernacle were anointed ; showing a 
close similarity between the two compounds, 3 as close, 
perhaps, as was consistent with the law forbidding the 
use and the manufacture for other purposes of any per- 
fume after the recipe by which the holy anointing oil of 
the tabernacle was prepared. But the mention of the 
smell of aloes, in this oil of gladness with which the king 
had been anointed, sufficiently proves, if the absence of 
the other ingredients did not, that it differed from the 
sacerdotal oil. It was a perfumed chrism resembling in 
its composition, and yet different from, that prepared for 
the sanctuary. Perhaps when the Hebrews changed the 

I p s . cxxxiii. i, 2. 2 p s . xlv. 6, 7. 3 Compare Exod. xxx. 23, 24 with Ps. xlv. 8. 



SYMBOLISM OF VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 245 



form of their government to a monarchy, and desired 
a ceremonial for establishing the king in his regal office, 
a recipe was furnished for this as for the sacerdotal 
chrism, and purposely made similar because both com- 
pounds should be of the choicest materials, and yet 
different so as to maintain the separation of the older 
recipe to its original use. 

With the moderns, sight takes precedence of the 
other senses in distinguishing between the agreeable 
and the disagreeable, so that there is a tendency to 
characterize as beautiful, things which please otherwise 
than through the eye ; but, with the Hebrews, the sense 
of smell had the pre-eminence, and an agreeable object 
was "a savor of a sweet smell," not only when its 
pleasantness was appreciated by the olfactory organs, 
but in cases where there could be an odor only in a 
figurative sense. A good name was as ointment poured 
forth, and diffusing its agreeable perfume. To be dis- 
liked, on the contrary, was to be a stench in the nostrils ; 
and so fixed had this idiom become that the English 
translators sometimes took the liberty of rendering it 
by "to be abhorred," 1 or " to be had in abomination," 2 
or "to be odious." 3 One case especially deserves notice 
on account of the evidence furnished in the passage 
itself that the figure had been used till its origin and 
literal meaning were ignored. The officers of the 
Hebrews said to Moses and Aaron, " Jehovah look upon 
you, and judge, because ye have made our savor to be a 
stench in the eyes of Pharaoh." 4 

Now, if the pleasant aroma of spices when mixed with 
oil added to the significance of the latter the idea of 

1 Exod v. 21. 2 x Sam. xiii. 4. h Chron. xix. 6. 4 Exod, v. 21. 
21* 



246 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



gladness accompanying the work of the Spirit, we may 
safely infer that perfumes, whenever and wherever used 
as symbols, stood for something agreeable. If, as ingre- 
dients in the chrism with which Aaron was consecrated, 
they signified that his priesthood would be diffusive of 
joy among those for whom he officiated, doubtless when 
burned on the altar of Jehovah they represented a 
spiritual offering of something with which he was well 
pleased. 

It would be fair to infer thus much in regard to the 
burning of perfumes as an act of worship ; we have, 
however, more than inferential proof that the sweet odor 
arising from the altar symbolized the agreeableness of a 
spiritual sacrifice, for incense is explained in the 
Scriptures as being the prayers of the holy. 1 Prayer in 
its broadest meaning, including praise, thanksgiving, 
confession of sin, supplication, and intercession, is 
pleasing to God. He loves to listen to the intelligent 
declaration of his power, wisdom, and righteousness, 
the contrite acknowledgment of conscious imperfection, 
and the confiding appeals to his parental love of those 
who in behalf of themselves or of others present some 
request. He enjoys such utterances from the lips of 
his people as an Oriental monarch delights in the 
fragrant perfumes wafted to him on wings of fire. The 
burning of odorous substances on the altar of God was 
accordingly appointed to be the symbol of prayer, but 
of prayer in the broad sense of worship. 

Such a significance of incense was not peculiar to 

1 Luke i. 10 ; Rev. v. 8 ; viii. 3, 4. In one of these texts, the vessels containing 
the incense are said to be the prayers, but doubtless for the reason that they 
contained the incense. We must not follow the letter so closely as to lose the 
spirit of the text. 



SYMBOLISM OF VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 2tf 

Mosaism, but obtained also in heathenism. When the 
Hebrews fell away from Jehovah to serve other gods, 
they worshipped the idols of the neighboring nations by 
burning incense. 1 The Egyptians honored all their 
numerous deities with these odorous oblations ; 2 and in 
Latin literature are many allusions to a similar custom 
among the Romans. 3 

Examination of the import of pomegranates and 
almonds is postponed till, in the progress of our work, a 
more eligible time shall arrive for interpreting these 
symbols, which, as they are less transparent than some 
others, are also inferior in importance. 

1 2 Chron. xxxiv. 25 ; Jer. xi. 12, 17. 

2 Wilkinson : Second Series, vol. ii. p. 338. 

3 Horace: Odes, I. xxx. 1 ; III. vii. 2 ; IV. i. 52. 



CHAPTER IX. 



SYMBOLISM OF ANIMALS AND COMPOSITE ANIMAL FORMS. 

The animals which might be offered in sacrifice within 
the precincts of the tabernacle were oxen, goats, sheep, 
and pigeons. Of these as symbols, and of the composite 
animal forms called cherubs, the present chapter is to 
treat. 

We have shown in the preceding chapter how corn 
and wine represented the life-work of the Hebrews, 
whose normal occupation was agriculture ; intimating at 
the same time that the symbolism was incomplete till 
flocks and herds, the products of another branch of 
husbandry, were included with those of tillage in this 
representation. The Hebrew was required to offer on 
the altar of his God not only bread and wine, but some 
of the domestic animals which he spent so large a 
portion of his time and labor in rearing ; and there was 
resemblance in the import of the sacrifices, whether 
they were fruits of tillage or of grazing. 

Bread and wine, however, as products not only of 
agriculture, but of skill and industry superadded to the 
labor expended on the soil, are particularly apt for 
symbolizing what a man has acquired by his labor; 
while, if it be necessary to symbolize the man himself, it 
is more natural to do it by means of his calf, kid, or 
248 



SYMBOLISM OF ANIMALS. 



249 



lamb, which by the possession of animal life are better 
adapted to represent the vital power of their owner. 
Sacrifices being symbols of spiritual oblations, an animal 
was more expressive of self-surrender, as the vegetable 
offering was of the consecration of labor. Both were 
the property of the worshipper, products of diligence in 
his normal life-work, and staple articles of food. Pre- 
sented together, they symbolized the consecration to God 
which the Hebrew made of his person and of his toil 
in the field of ethics ; and the burning of them on the 
altar by the mediating priest signified that Jehovah 
accepted and delighted in the spiritual offering which 
they symbolized, as the worshipper enjoyed flesh, bread, 
and wine, when placed on his own domestic table. 

Such being in general the significance of sacrifices, 
we must look more particularly at the points of corre- 
spondence between an animal brought to the altar, and 
that for which it stood in the spiritual transaction repre- 
sented. 

In the first place, then, the animal was the property 
of the worshipper. A man who would represent the 
giving of himself, i.e., of his faculties as a person, as 
well as of his life-work, must bring something which was 
truly his own. That in which he had no property could 
not symbolize a gift. When David wished to offer a 
sacrifice on the threshing-floor of one of his wealthy 
subjects, who with princely liberality offered to furnish 
gratuitously whatever materials were at hand, including 
the oxen and the wheat, the king refused to accept the 
gift, saying, " Nay ; but I will surely buy it of thee at a 
price : neither will I offer burnt-offerings unto Jehovah, 
my God, of that which doth cost me nothing." 1 The 

1 2 Sam. xxiv. 24. 



250 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

element of ownership must inhere even in vegetable 
offerings ; but, where the giving of the very person of 
the worshipper was to be acted, there was, if possible, a 
still more stringent necessity to include in the material 
of the sacrifice the idea of property. 

Two things may be alleged against this position ; 
namely, that the ram which Abraham sacrificed instead 
of his own son was not his property, and that the first 
victims brought to the altar after the Babylonian captivity 
were provided by the generosity of Cyrus. 1 But these 
were exceptional cases : the first (to say nothing of its 
being pre-mosaic) so singular and extraordinary as to 
furnish no aid in the study of normal cases ; and the 
other only showing that the returning exiles, being unable 
in their extreme poverty to re-establish their ancestral 
worship with their own resources, availed themselves 
temporarily of the assistance of a foreign prince. What- 
ever weight of evidence might be allowed to this accept- 
ance of aid, to prove that ownership was not an element 
in the idea of sacrifice, is more than counterbalanced by 
the early care of the colonists to make ordinances, 
charging themselves with all necessary expenses for the 
service of the house of God. 2 

Secondly, the material for a sacrifice must be edible 
property. The law required payments, and encouraged 
gifts to Jehovah for the maintenance of his sanctuary 
and its attendants, out of other portions of the substance 
which the Hebrew had acquired ; but sacrifices on the 
altar must consist only of food. Things which it was 
impossible to eat, as well as every thing that by reason 
of its uncleanness ought not to be eaten, were excluded 



1 Ezra vi. 9. 



2 Neh. x. 32. 



SYMBOLISM OF ANIMALS. 251 

from this class of holy offerings. The reason of this is 
to be found in the analogy between man's enjoyment of 
his food, and the delight God has in that which the 
transaction at the altar pictured. Jehovah was pleased 
with the dedication to a life of holy obedience, which the 
pious Israelite there made of himself and his power to 
work. To him it was delicious food to see his people 
keep his covenant, and remember his commandments to 
do them. The fruits of holiness in the lives, of his 
people, represented by the products of labor in their 
earthly vocation, being thus pleasing to God, it was 
necessary that altar-gifts should consist of food, so that 
the worshipper might be assisted, by his own experience 
of the pleasures of the table, to appreciate the delight 
with which Jehovah received the sacrifices of righteous- 
ness. 

Thirdly, the gift brought to the altar must be, m 
relation to the worshipper, something for which, and by 
means of which, he lived. The normal vocation of the 
Hebrew was agriculture, in its two departments of grazing 
and tillage ; and the ceremonial of religion assumed 
that every sacrificer was a husbandman. Those who 
followed some other pursuit could fulfil the requirement 
of law by purchasing the sacrifices they presented ; but 
the nature of the required material presupposed that the 
rearing of flocks and herds, and the production of corn 
and wine, were the chief occupation of the Hebrew. 
These products of his labor thus appointed to be ^ the 
material of sacrifice were, moreover, his staple articles 
of food. His life was spent in providing them, and they 
were the means by which his life was sustained. So, in 
the higher plane of spiritual things, obedience to God 



252 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

was the end sought by the true Israelite, and the means 
of sustaining life. He labored in the field of ethics for 
the fruits of holiness, and lived by means of them. He 
gave his attention to the commandments of Jehovah as 
the husbandman does to his vineyards, his cornfields, 
and his cattle ; and lived by every word that proceed- 
ed out of the mouth of God, as in the lower plane 
of physical things he supported life by means of flesh, 
bread, and wine : hence the necessity that the gift 
brought to the altar should be in rapport with the 
worshipper, both as an object of constant pursuit, and 
as a means of sustenance. He intends to say through 
his symbol, u Lo, I come : I delight to do thy will, O my 
God; yea, thy law is within my heart:" 1 the symbol, 
therefore, should be something for which he labors, and 
by which he subsists. To obey is, indeed, better than 
sacrifice, as the substance of a thing is better than its 
shadow ; but the sacrifice could be a shadow of obedi- 
ence only as it stood to the worshipper in this double 
relation, consisting of that for which, and by means of 
which, he lived. 

Thus far, the points of correspondence between the 
animal brought to the priest for sacrifice, and that for 
which it stood in the spiritual transaction reflected, have 
been such as were common to an animal and a vegetable 
offering. In regard to both, it was necessary that the 
material should be the property of the worshipper, the 
property of such kind as he could use for food, and 
the food such as the people generally spent their lives in 
producing, and commonly used for sustenance. But 
the points of correspondence between the animal and the 



i Ps. xl. 7, 8. 



SYMBOLISM OF ANIMALS. 



253 



spiritual offering, which remain to be mentioned, are 
such that corn and wine would be incompetent to take 
the place of the bleeding victim, and act its part in the 
representation. 

To the three already mentioned we add, fourthly, the 
sacrificial animal when presented to God had a psychical 
life. The Old Testament comprehends the whole animal 
world, including man, in the phrase, " all flesh in which is 
the breath of life." Animals are thus distinguished from 
plants, in which, though there is life, there is no breath. 
Breathing, according to the psychology of the Hebrews, 
was the effect and manifestation of a vital force which 
they believed to reside in the blood, and called soul. 
They regarded every thing which had breath and blood as 
possessing, or to speak more accurately as being, a living 
soul. They acknowledged, indeed, a distinction between 
the merely animal, and the human, creation, believing 
that man was endowed with the attributes of personality, 
being self-conscious, self-determining, and consequently 
capable of holiness or its opposite ; whereas the ox, the 
goat, and the sheep, had no power of introspection or 
self-determination, and therefore no responsibility for 
their actions. But, while recognizing the image of God 
in man, they held that he had, in common with all flesh 
in which is the breath of life, that power which they 
believed to reside in the blood of every breathing 
creature, and called soul. 

Accordingly, a living animal, by virtue of this common 
basis of life, might represent a man, especially in any 
matter where life was concerned. Its owner might 
substitute it in place of himself in a dramatic exhibition 
of religious truth. Its blood, which, as we had occasion 
22 



254 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



to show in the chapter on color, was the recognized 
symbol of its life, might by substitution become the sym- 
bol of the life of its owner. When the Hebrew brought 
a lamb to the priest, and laid his hand on its head, 
he by that sign dedicated the animal to be his substi- 
tute, and die in his stead. He did so in accordance 
with an express appointment of Jehovah, as is evident 
from the Mosaic statute prohibiting the use of blood 
as food. The reason for such a prohibition is given in 
the words, " For the life of the flesh is in the blood : and 
I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atone- 
ment for your souls : for it is the blood that maketh 
atonement with the soul." 1 The translation is that of 
the received English version, with the exception of the 
last preposition ; which we render with, instead of for, 
to indicate a difference both in form and in meaning 
between the last clause of the verse, and the similar 
clause which precedes. 2 Even without this amendment 
of the translation, the reason alleged for the prohibition 
testifies that the blood of a sacrificial animal, when put 
upon the altar, made an atonement for the soul of the 
worshipper, and repeats the testimony in the last clause 
of the verse. A proper distinction between two Hebrew 
prepositions gives, however, greater strength and 
clearness to the testimony by bringing out its declaration 

1 Lev. xvii. n. 

2 Nordheimer, in his Hebrew grammar, vol. ii. p. 232, says of the preposition 3, 
" It is employed to point out the means with or by which the action is performed ; 
e. g., 1 They shall smear it with pitch ' (Gen. vi. 14), ' Lest he smite us with pestilence 
or with the sword ' (Exod. v. 3 ), 1 Ye shall buy meal with money ' (Deut. ii. 6), ' Write 
with a man's pen' (Isa. viii. 1), 'With thy wisdom and with thy understanding 
thou hast procured thyself riches' (Ezek. xxviii. 4, 5)." Gesenius also speaks of 
it as sometimes placed before the instrument. 



SYMBOLISM OF ANIMALS. 



255 



that the atonement is made with the soul, or life, of the 
victim. 

One point of correspondence, then, between the 
bleeding sacrifice and that which it represented, wherein 
it differed from corn and wine, was that it had a psychical 
life, enabling it to represent its owner as a living being, 
and give up its life for him in any situation in which he 
was liable to die. Hence, in a sin-offering or a trespass- 
offering there was no presentation of corn and wine, as 
these would be without meaning where the ceremonial 
represented merely the expiation, or covering of sin : a 
bleeding animal was the essential and only material 
suitable for a sin-offering. Its blood made an atonement 
for, or covered, as the Hebrew word literally signifies, the 
soul of its owner with its own soul. In a holocaust, 
the principal idea being that of dedication, the material 
was both animal and vegetable ; but the fact that the 
blood of the animal was sprinkled on the altar as in 
the sin-offering, shows that the expiation of sin symbol- 
ized by that transaction entered as an element into the 
idea of a burnt-offering. Indeed, in the statute fixing 
the ceremonial of the holocaust, it is expressly declared 
that the sacrificer shall " put his hand upon the head of 
the burnt-offering, and it shall be accepted for him to 
make atonement for him." 1 He could be permitted to 
represent the surrender of himself and his works, only on 
condition that such a gift should be immediately preceded 
by rites of expiation. The sprinkling of blood on the 
altar when peace-offerings were presented, is evidence 
that expiation for the soul of the worshipper with the 
soul of the victim, was an element in this species of 



1 Lev. i. 4. 



256 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

sacrifice also. In all cases, therefore, where life was 
taken at the altar, there was represented a substitution 
of the animal for its owner, he having by his sin become 
liable to die, and the victim making expiation for him, 
life for life. 

Fifthly, the sacrificial animal must be free from 
blemish. This requirement was founded on the appoint- 
ment of the animal as a medium of expiation. Bodily 
injuries and defects are in the sphere of physics what 
sins are in the domain of ethics. A sinful being 
evidently cannot come in between another sinner and 
God to be a cover of sin. His life, being forfeited for 
his own crime, is not receivable as an expiation for one 
whom he might attempt to represent. This being true, 
a sacrificial animal must be free from injury or natural 
defect in order to symbolize the sinlessness of the 
substitute who comes in between God and -the trans- 
gressor to cover the sin of the latter. The symbol must 
be physically whole to represent the innocence of that 
which is substituted for guilt. 

Sixthly, the sacrificial animal must be of an age which 
indicates vigor of life. Animals could not be offered in 
sacrifice till they were eight days old, and, according to 
tradition, the limit at the other extreme was three years : 
in most cases, one year was the age prescribed. 

In addition to this symbolism of animals, the Hebrews 
employed also, in the representation of their religious 
thought, composite animal figures. In this ; tjsey followed 
neighboring nations older than themselves ; for example, 
the Egyptians and the Assyrians. The remainder of 
this chapter is to treat of these figures and their 




Fig. 26. 

EAGLE HEADED HUMAN FIGURE. 



SYMBOLISM OF ANIMALS. 



257 



significance. It may be useful to glance first at the 
similar usage of the heathen. 

Says Layard, " On the earliest Assyrian monuments, 
one of the most prominent sacred types is the eagle- 
headed human figure. Not only is it found in colossal 
proportions on the walls, or guarding the portals of the 
chambers, but it is also constantly represented amongst 
the groups on the embroidered robes. When thus 
introduced, it is generally seen contending with other 
mythic animals such as the human-headed lion or bull ; 
and in these contests it appears to be always the 
conqueror. It may hence be inferred that it was a type 
of the supreme deity, or of one of his principal 
attributes." 1 

The same author also informs us that the head of an 
eagle is sometimes found added to the body of a lion ; the 
resultant figure thus resembling the griffin of the Greek 
mythology, avowedly an Eastern symbol, and connected 
with Apollo, or the sun, of which the Assyrian form was 
probably an emblem. This composite figure, like the 
eagle-headed man, is the conqueror in combats with 
other symbolic figures. 

He proceeds to say, " The winged human-headed lions 
and bulls, those magnificent forms which guarded the 
portals of the Assyrian temples, next deserve notice. 
Not only are they found as separate sculptures, but, 
like the eagle-headed figures, are constantly introduced 
into the groups embroidered on the robes. It is worthy 
of observation that whenever they are represented in 
contest either with man, or with the eagle-headed 
figure, they appear to be vanquished." 2 

1 Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 348. 2 Ibid. vol.. ii. p. 349^ 



258 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

Various other composite forms are found in the 
Assyrian sculptures, such as the winged horse, the dragon 
with the eagles head, and the human figure with the 
head of a lion, — all emblematic of religious ideas. 

Among the Egyptians, a hawk-headed human figure 
represented the king. The hawk being the symbol of 
the sun, which they worshipped under the name Re, 
implied either identity with that deity, or similarity of 
position and attributes. The Egyptian sphinx, combin- 
ing the body of the lion with the head of some other 
animal, also represented the king ; the lion symbolizing 
strength ; the human head, intelligence ; the hawk's 
head, far-reaching and comprehensive vision; and the 
ram's head, combativeness. 

A degree of resemblance is at once evident in the 
composite animal figures employed by these two nations ; 
the eagle-headed man of the Assyrians being similar 
to the hawk-headed man of the Egyptians, and the 
human-headed lions and bulls recently uncovered at 
Nineveh reminding one of the colossal andro-sphinx 
at Gizeh which has so long been one of the wonders of 
the world. The general resemblance is, however, 
invariably accompanied by a difference of detail in the 
figures of the two nations. The Assyrian sculptor 
never used the hawk as a symbol, nor the Egyptian the 
eagle. The Assyrian sphinx has either the body of a 
lion or of an ox ; but the sphinx of Egypt, so far as its 
hinder-parts are concerned, employs only the form of the 
lion. There is still greater diversity in the meaning 
attached to such symbols by the two nations ; for, as 
Layard says, " Although the andro-sphinx of the Egyp- 
tians was the type of the monarch, we can scarcely 



Fig. 27. 
EAGLE-HEADED LION. 




Fig. 28. 

WINGED HUMAN HEADED LION. 



SYMBOLISM OF ANIMALS. 



259 



believe it to have been so among the Assyrians ; for in 
the sculptures we find even the eagle-headed fig are, the 
vanquisher of the human-headed lion and bull, minis- 
tering to the king." 1 

We come now to the consideration of the composite 
animal figures found in the tabernacle, commonly called 
cherubs, or, if we retain the Hebrew form of the plural, 
cherubim. Two such figures in statuary of gold stood 
on the ark of the covenant, one at each end of the 
mercy-seat ; and such figures were woven into the tap- 
estry with which the edifice was covered, and divided 
into its two apartments. 

The etymology of the word cherub being lost, the 
name renders us no assistance in the interpretation of 
the symbol. It is noteworthy, however, that Ezekiel 
applies to similar composite figures the appellation, 
"living creatures; " and the Apostle John, a similar desig- 
nation, unfortunately rendered in the common English 
version " beasts." Following the clew here given, we 
inquire if there is any thing in the composite form itself 
to carry us onward in this line of interpretation. The 
cherubs of the tabernacle are not described in the speci- 
fications, but mentioned as if the form were already so 
well known as to need no delineation for the sake of the 
general reader. Doubtless the artists were furnished 
with minute directions. 

The living creatures seen by Ezekiel are described by 
him with considerable amplification. 2 They were com- 
pounded of four animals, — the ox, the lion, the eagle, and 
man, — each excelling in some one life-power. The com- 
bination suggests a being, real or ideal, uniting in himself 

1 Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 349. 2 Ezek. i. 5-25. 



260 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

the qualities in which these four different manifestations 
of life are severally eminent. The human form is the 
groundwork of the composition ; 1 and the additions to it 
are suggestive of an improvement on man by adding to 
his faculties those in which other animals are his 
superiors ; as, for example, the power of vision and 
motion peculiar to the eagle, the strength of the lion, 
and the submission of the ox. 2 

The cherubs seen by the Apostle John in the Apoca- 
lypse were different in appearance from those described 
by Ezekiel, each having for its ground-form one of the 
four animals already mentioned ; but the recurrence of 
these four, notwithstanding this diversity, confirms the 
deductions already stated. 

The idealization of earthly creatural life by the com- 
bination of its highest manifestations was projected into 
shape as a composite animal figure, not constant in form, 
but varying as one element or another prevailed in the 
ideal conception. The presence of all these four animal 
forms in the visions both of Ezekiel and of John, ren- 
ders it probable that the four were wholly, or in part, 
contained in the cherubic figures of the tabernacle. 

Was, then, this idealization of life designed to repre- 
sent beings actually existing in this high grade of life, 

1 Ezek. i. 5. 

2 Layard (Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 350) says of the emblematic 
figures of the Assyrians, " Power was probably typified indiscriminately by the body 
of the lion and the bull." It does not appear, however, that these two animals 
have been found combined in one composition in the sculptures of Assyria. Where 
united in one representation, as in the cherub of Ezekiel, they doubtless represent 
different ideas ; and as the lion was frequently in Hebrew usage a symbol of 
strength, as appears from many passages of Scripture, it seems probable that the 
ox is designed to portray the willingness with which the ideal being employs his 
eminent faculties in the service of Jehovah. 




Fig. 29. 
ANDRO-SPHINX. 



4k 



SYMBOLISM OF ANIMALS. 



261 



or did it point backward to what man was before the 
fall, and forward to what he is to be in the restored 
paradise? There is no passage of Scripture which 
indisputably teaches the actual existence of beings 
represented by these composite animal figures. In most 
cases, cherubs appear in scenes which are plainly sym- 
bolic or poetic ; and the only passage appealed to in 
proof that they do not stand for what is purely ideal, is 
in the narrative of the expulsion of our first parents 
from paradise, where it is said that the Lord God " drove 
out the man, and placed at the east of the garden of 
Eden cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned 
every way to keep the way of the tree of life." 1 

But why not interpret the word here in accordance 
with the common, and if this passage is not an excep- 
tion, the uniform usage of Scripture, as designating 
symbolic forms visible to man in his expulsion, and 
understood by him to represent his own nature as it was 
before the fall, and as it might again become? The 
flaming sword now guarded the tree of life from his 
approach ; but the symbols of man restored to the life 
he had lost, still occupied the garden as a pledge of his 
restoration. 

Is it alleged that the office of the cherubs was to keep 
the way of the tree of life ? The passage has, indeed, 
been commonly understood to affirm this of the cherubs 
as well as of the sword, but without sufficient ground ; 
for the demands of syntax are fully met by referring the 
custody of the tree to the sword. The passage thus 
understood affirms of the cherubs only that they were 
placed in the east of the garden, or near its entrance ; 

1 Gen. iii. 24. 



262 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

for doubtless Eden, like the tabernacle in the wilderness, 
fronted the rising sun. The inference is that they were 
placed there to have the same significance as they 
had in the tabernacle, in the temple, and in the Apoca- 
lyptic vision of heaven. If, under the Mosaic and Chris- 
tian dispensations, these composite figures symbolized 
humanity redeemed, sanctified, and glorified, probably 
they had a parallel meaning when employed in the 
symbolism of earlier times. 1 

What they signified in the tabernacle and in the tem- 
ple being the very point to be illuminated, we pass at 
once from the first scene in the history of redemption 
where they appear, to the vision of heaven in which a 
Christian Hebrew beheld these symbolic beings before 
and around the throne of God. They there join in the 
song to the Lamb, saying, as the angels do not say, 
"Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the 
seals thereof ; for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us 
to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, 
and people, and nation ; and hast made us unto our God 
kings and priests : and we shall reign on the earth." 2 

What clearer evidence than this do we need that the 
composite animal figures of Hebrew symbolism repre- 
sented humanity raised from its death in Adam to 
fulness of life in Christ? They were "living ones" 

1 The writer, believing firmly in the truth of the Mosaic account of the probation 
and fall of Adam, believes also that Moses has given it to us in the language of 
symbolism, and that we are no more justified in interpreting it literally than in a 
parallel exegesis of John's description of the New Jerusalem. Those, however, 
who insist that the description of Eden is literal, and understand that the garden 
remained enclosed after the fall, attach symbolic meaning to the cherubim placed in 
the east of it; so that it is sufficient for his present purpose if these symbols are 
correctly interpreted, whatever view may be taken of the remainder of the picture. 

2 Rev. v. 9, io. 



SYMBOLISM OF ANIMALS. 



263 



oecause Christ having died for them, and risen again, 
had made them partakers of his life. They belonged 
to every kindred and tongue, and people and nation, 
and had been redeemed with the blood of the Lamb of 
God. 



CHAPTER X. 



INTERPRETATION OF THE EDIFICE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

In surveying the resources of the interpreter, it 
seemed necessary to anticipate the work of interpretation 
so far as to argue from the directions given to Moses 
for the preparation of the tabernacle, and for the conduct 
of its ministrations, that it was designed to represent 
the presence of Jehovah with the Hebrews as their 
covenant God. Accepting the result of the argument, 
we do not propose to repeat the steps by which it was 
reached ; but to commence, at the position thus gained, 
that interpretation of the symbols of the institution for 
which the previous chapters have prepared the way. 

But, before proceeding to a more specific inquiry into 
the significance of the tabernacle, let us notice how the 
descriptive terms applied to it by its divine projector 
confirm the deduction thus drawn from the plan of the 
edifice, from the manifest adaptation of its furniture, and 
from the natural symbolism of portions of its ritual. 

The Hebrew word mishcan, translated tabernacle, is 

derived from the verb skacan, to dwell ; and is therefore 

equivalent etymologically to dwelling-house, or habitation, 

which, among a nomadic people, would naturally be 

conceived of not as implying solid masonry, but as 

portable like their own habitations. Apart, then, from 
264 



i 



INTERPRETATION OF THE EDIFICE. 265 

the indications in its plan and appointments, there is, 
in the application to the edifice of the word miskean, 
reason for the conjecture that it was designed to be in 
some sense the habitation of God ; and the suggestion 
becomes more and more worthy of regard, as one 
observes the frequency with which this appellation is 
employed. But if the name by which the Hebrew 
mentioned his own portable dwelling when applied to the 
sacred tabernacle in the midst of the encampment, sug- 
gested to his mind that the latter was the home of 
Jehovah, he must have entertained the idea in a sense 
consistent with the invisibility and omnipresence ascribed 
to the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. That 
this edifice was the habitation of Jehovah, could mean 
only that it was the place where he manifested, by sym- 
bolic representation, what he was in his own nature and 
in his attitude toward his people, and where he commu- 
nicated with them by accepting their offerings, and 
imparting instruction, counsel, and consolation. 

This conception of the edifice as a place where God 
dwelt for the purpose of revealing himself to his people, 
and communicating with them, appears also in the more 
specific terms ohel haaduth, tent of the testimony, and 
ohel moadtk, inaccurately rendered, in the common 
English version, tent of the congregation, but signifying 
tent of meeting. As a tent of testimony, the tabernacle 
added to the revelation which the material universe makes 
of the intelligence and power of God, a declaration of 
his spiritual nature. The witness thus borne by the 
whole institution was especially distinct and emphatic in 
the ark of the testimony, whose symbolism, as we shall 
presently discover, represented that the Holy One of 
23 



266 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

Israel required holiness in his covenant people, and was 
at the same time ready to restore to his fellowship and 
his house, penitent trangressors whose sin had been 
expiated. As a tent of meeting, it had a two-sided adap- 
tation : on one side to the spiritual wants of which the 
people might become conscious ; and on the other to 
the divine purpose in their election, being the appointed 
place where the people were to come when they desired 
to transact with their God, and where he summoned 
them to receive the communications he wished to convey. 
By whichever party an interview was sought, this was 
the house where Jehovah met his people, and where 
they might be sure always to find him. 

The tabernacle being therefore the habitation of God, 
we proceed to examine in detail the symbols it presents 
in its edifice, its furniture, its priesthood, its lustrations, 
its sacrifices, and its calendar. 

The conception of the tabernacle as an edifice 
includes its court ; though sometimes the word is applied 
in a more restricted sense to the house, as distinguished 
from the open area in which it stood. The court was 
the only part of the edifice in which the people could 
personally appear, and transact with Jehovah. Here he 
met them at the altar of burnt-offering to accept the 
self-surrender symbolized by their sacrifice, and give his 
blessing in return. Here they came whenever burdened 
with the consciousness of sin, as well as on anniversary 
days appointed by divine authority, to make confession, 
and to receive the seal of re-establishment in the favor 
of God. The court, then, was the outer part of 
Jehovah's habitation, where he received those who were 



INTERPRETATION OF THE EDIFICE. 267 



not allowed to enter the palace itself ; and represents 
that first stage in the establishment of the kingdom of 
God where he makes provision for the expiation of sin, 
and establishes friendly relations with men. The 
Hebrews, though elected by Jehovah as his peculiar 
treasure, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation, were 
not yet permitted to come to him in the exercise of 
priestly functions. They themselves were conscious, 
when first informed of their election, that they were 
unfit to deal directly with so holy a God, and, though 
accepting the terms of the covenant, requested that 
they might be excused from speaking with Jehovah 
directly, and receive communications from him through 
Moses. In accordance, therefore, with a necessity 
recognized by both parties to the covenant, the court of 
the tabernacle was the place where, through appointed 
representatives of himself, God met those who sought 
the forgiveness of sin, offered themselves to him m self- 
surrender, and presented the fruits of consecrated lives, 
but had not received the filial spirit which would enable 
them to enjoy a closer intimacy. 

The distinction between those who were admitted 
only to the court, and those who might come within the 
tabernacle, strictly so called, was, that the former, being 
not yet qualified to draw nigh to God, needed mediators, 
while the latter might come to him directly. Hence, in 
the court, though it was truly a place where God met his 
people, all transactions with them were carried on 
through the intervention of the priesthood ; but in the 
■ house, all who were admitted being themselves priests, 
no third party came between them and the master of 
the house. 



268 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



The house, as distinguished from the court, represented 
the kingdom of God in a higher stage of advancement, 
where men trusting him as their Saviour desire to have 
direct intercourse with him, and are permitted to do so. 
Those who here transacted with God were a privileged 
class, chosen out of Israel as Israel was chosen from 
among the nations. When Jehovah made known to the 
Hebrews their election, he gave them to understand 
that all the earth was his, but that they were his peculiar 
treasure, a holy nation, and a kingdom of priests. 1 
Afterward, when Korah and his companions rebelled 
against the restriction of priestly functions to the 
family of Aaron, and claimed that all the covenant 
people were holy, and might officiate at the altar, 
founding their claim perhaps on the announcement at 
Sinai, Moses characterized Aaron with the same 
specifications of difference from the rest of the congre- 
gation with w T hich the original announcement to the 
covenant people of their election had distinguished them 
from the heathen. " To-morrow/' said he, " Jehovah 
will show who are his, and who is holy, and will cause 
him to come near unto him." 2 Those whom he would 
allow to officiate in the symbolic worship of the taber- 
nacle were chosen, were holy, were his in distinction 
from other Hebrews, as the whole Hebrew people 
were chosen, were holy, were his peculiar treasure 
above all other nations. But, though the Levitical 
priests were in" the symbolic worship a privileged class, 
their official prerogative was conferred on them for the 
sake of showing forth the high position to which all 
Israel were called, of being priests in that kingdom of 

l Exod xix. 5, 6. 2 Num. xvi. 5. 



INTERPRETATION OF THE EDIFICE. 269 



God of which the tabernacle was the shadow. As 
the court represented that kingdom before any real 
expiation had been made for sin, and inculcated the 
need of such expiation, so the interior of Jehovah's 
house, where only the priests might appear in his pres- 
ence represented the same kingdom in a later stage of 
development, when the need expressed in the symbols 
of the court had been supplied, and its people being 
truly, in distinction from symbolically, made clean, might 
draw near to their God. 

But there was still within the house itself a division 
into two chambers, and a difference between the two in 
the degree of their sanctity, corresponding with that 
between the court and the house. As the common 
people were forbidden to pass from the court into the 
outer apartment, so the priests of ordinary rank were 
prohibited from entering within the veil which, as they 
ministered in the holy place, concealed from them the 
visible symbol of Jehovah. As they lighted the lamps, 
renewed the loaves of show-bread, and burned incense, 
they believed that the cloud was upon the mercy-seat 
over the ark of testimony, though they did not see it ; 
but the high-priest, when allowed to enter within the 
veil, stood in the immediate presence of that symbol 
with no screen between it and him. 

The holy of holies represented the kingdom of God 
in its highest stage of development, where his people 
draw near by sight, and not, as in the preceding stage, by 
faith. It was accessible only to him in whom all the 
dignity and sanctity of the priesthood culminated that 
he might represent the glorious estate of those who, 
when the divine plan of redemption shall have reached 



2 2- ; 



270 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

its highest and final development, shall dwell with God 
in his immediate presence as kings and priests, seeing 
as they are seen, and knowing as they are known. Even 
to him, access was not ordinarily permitted : once only 
in a year, when rites of lustration for his own sins and 
those of his constituents were necessary, he might enter 
to perform them, but must immediately fill the apart- 
ment with a cloud of incense lest he should lose his life 
by gazing at the symbol of Jehovah. 

The three stages of progress which this tripartite 
division of the tabernacle represents, find their realiza- 
tion in the history both of individual believers and of 
redemption itself. The law teaches a man the reality, 
extent, and odiousness of sin, and his need of expiation. 
The gospel, both in its rudimental state before the 
advent of Christ, and more clearly since his appearance, 
points to a Lamb of God which is a true expiation, 
and thus enables one who receives the glad tidings with 
faith, to come near to God and dwell with him in mutual 
love. But there is reserved for every believer a higher 
privilege than this. While in the body, his communion 
with God, however intimate and sweet, must be by faith, 
and not by sight; but, when absent from the mortal 
body, he shall be present with the Lord, so that for him 
to die is gain. 

The tabernacle was, however, not only an exponent 
of personal religious experience by which the Israelite 
who felt the burden of sin was guided into the con- 
sciousness of "regeneration, justification, and adoption, 
and at the same time assured of ultimate advancement 
to a higher and absolutely perfect state, but a represen- 
tation of the entire work of redemption in its three 



INTERPRETATION OF THE EDIFICE. 271 



stages of development in human history ; the first, then 
existing, and continuing till the appearance of Christ ; 
the second, extending from his first to his second 
advent ; and the third, exhibiting the kingdom of God 
in its complete and eternal state. The court is the 
church under the old covenant, when the people needed 
types of the expiation to be provided afterward ; the 
holy place is the church under the new covenant, when 
the symbolic atonement exhibited in the court has given 
place to one which can really take away sin, and the 
covenant people are consequently able to draw near to 
God in their own persons, though not yet permitted 
to behold him ; the holy of holies is the final state of 
the kingdom of God, which, as it cannot be literally 
described to us, has been again symbolized in the 
New Jerusalem of the Apocalypse. 

Having thus ascertained what is expressed by the 
division of the tabernacle into its court, its holy place, 
and its holy of holies, and by the relation of these parts 
one to another, we next inquire whether the forms 
exhibited by these several divisions, and by the entire 
edifice, are symbolic ; and, if so, what they signify. 

A place of worship must have some form ; and that of 
the quadrangle is so convenient for the purpose, that 
one is disposed to think at first that utility alone deter- 
mined the ground-plan of the Hebrew sanctuary and its 
circumjacent court. But when we find that, with all the 
additions superinduced upon the plan of the tabernacle 
to answer the demands of the more elaborate ritual used 
in the time of Solomon, the ground-plan of the sanc- 
tuary he erected, though much larger, was the same in 



272 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



shape and proportion as that of its predecessor, we con- 
clude that the forms thus adhered to assisted to convey 
the significance of which both tabernacle and temple 
were full. 

An Egyptian, contemporary with Moses, and acquainted 
with no other symbolism than that of his own country, 
might be led to conclude that the quadrangular form 
exhibited in the habitation of the Hebrew God was 
intended to suggest that the cosmos is the dwelling of 
Jehovah ; but a person already familiar with the Hebrew 
idea of a covenant God dwelling among his covenant 
people, and thus revealing his spiritual nature, as in the 
universe he reveals his power and wisdom, would natur- 
ally so modify the significance attached to the quadran- 
gle by the heathen as to understand by it, in this case, 
the spiritual, and not the physical realm, in which God 
resides and reigns. 

From the Pentateuch to the Apocalypse, the church, or 
spiritual kingdom of God, whenever portrayed in the sym- 
bolism of surface forms, is represented by a quadrangle. 
We find this figure not only in the tabernacle, but in 
the temple of Solomon, in the temple of Ezekiel, 1 and in the 
New Jerusalem. In the first two of these instances, the 
quadrangle occurs both as an oblong and a square, but with 
a preponderance of the former. In the third, the quad- 
rangle is again exhibited in both its forms, but the oblong 
is seen only in the holy place ; the court being square to 
signify that the kingdom, as here portrayed, is no longer 
in the stage of development exhibited in the tabernacle, 

1 A delineation of the temple of Ezekiel in two plates, copied from J. F. Bott- 
cher's Proben alttestamentlichen Schrifterkldrung, may be found at the end of 
Rosenmiiller's Scholia in Ezech. Lipsiae, 1833. 



INTERPRETATION OF THE EDIFICE. 273 



but has passed into its second stage by the historical 
fulfilment of that which was symbolized in the court ; 
so that expiation, if now represented, must appear as 
complete. In the fourth, the oblong does not make its 
appearance at all, the quadrangle being square to denote 
that the kingdom of God is now in its final and perfected 
condition. The specific difference of form in these 
quadrangles is not an antagonism in the evidence, but 
the reverse ; since by means of it instances are multi- 
plied in which the kingdom of God is represented by a 
four-sided figure, and at the same time such means are 
furnished of exposing to view specific modifications of 
the generic idea represented, as one might expect to find 
in an elaborate system of symbolization. The symbolic 
kingdom is always four-sided, but is oblong or square 
according as it portrays the true kingdom in its 
inchoate, or in its final and perfect condition. 

We are prepared, therefore, to go again through the 
divisions of the tabernacle, and indicate the significance 
of its ground-plan. The court is four-sided, but not 
square; a symmetrical figure, but only respective and 
not uniform in its symmetry to show that its spiritual 
counterpart, though approaching, had not yet reached 
the perfection suggested by a square. The holy place 
corresponded in form with the court, because the work 
of redemption, as here exhibited, is also incomplete. But, 
when we come to the holy of holies, we find in its 
ground-plan the same elements of regularity which 
existed in the other divisions, and, in addition, an exact 
equality of the lines by which it is defined. The quad- 
rangle being changed from an oblong to a square, and 
now exhibiting uniform instead of respective symmetry, 



2 7 4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

has not only ceased to suggest remaining defect, but 
positively affirms the faultlessness of that which it repre- 
sents. 

The symbolism of form extends beyond the superficial 
to the solid figures of the tabernacle. The height 
mentioned in the specifications so accords with the 
requirements of convenience, that one is at first disposed, 
as he had been in regard to the ground-plan, to reject 
the idea of symbolic significance ; but when he finds 
that the length, and breadth, and height of the New 
Jerusalem, are equal, he is compelled to believe that, at 
least in this vision of the holy city coming down from 
God out of heaven, the cubical form has significance. 
Even an ideal city could never be raised to the height of 
twelve thousand furlongs, in obliteration of its resem- 
blance to real cities, except for the purpose of symboliza- 
tion. The cube is among solids, as the square among 
superficial figures, the ultimate of regularity and 
symmetry, the perfection of form ; and was combined 
with other symbols in the vision of the apostle, to typify 
the future perfection of the kingdom of God. But if we 
admit that this figure, as displayed in the New Jerusalem, 
was significant, we cannot deny that it was equally so in 
the smaller dimensions of the holy of holies in the 
tabernacle ; and when we have learned that the sym- 
bolism of form selects the cube among solids, as it does 
the square among superficial figures, to represent the 
absolute, we shall be prepared for a similar parallelism 
between the solid which has an oblong base, and the 
base itself on which the solid has been erected. As 
the uniform symmetry of the apartment called the holy 
of holies expressed the perfection of that which the apart- 



INTERPRETATION OF THE EDIFICE. 275 

ment represented, it follows that the want of uniform 
symmetry in the holy place denoted a corresponding 
defectiveness in that which the chamber, by means 01 
its respective symmetry, symbolized. 

The shape of a superficial figure depends on the 
number of its sides ; so that the symbolism of form is 
intimately connected with that of number. If numbers 
are to be used for the purpose of symbolization, four is 
naturally the numerical signature of that which is repre- 
sented by a figure with four sides. Consequently this 
number, wherever found in the tabernacle, whether it 
occurs in its own simple .form, or combined with other 
factors in multiples of itself, suggests, by association of 
ideas, the spiritual kingdom of God. Other numbers 
are also thus combined; but naturally four, as the 
representative of that which is symbolized by the entire 
institution, enters more frequently into combination, m 
order to stamp subordinate features with the impress of 
subordinate relation. 

Having sufficiently investigated the symbolism of form 
as exhibited in the tabernacle, let us again survey the 
edifice, seeking now for the significance of such numbers 
as are demanded by the specifications. 

Commencing with the wooden frame, we find that the 
pillars of which it consists amount to forty-eight. Was 
this specification arbitrary, or was it determined by the 
laws of symbolism ? Whatever may or may not have 
been suggested to the contemporaries of Moses, the 
Christian reader of the New Testament cannot fail to 
recognize the correspondence between the walls of a 
temple, at least when built of stone, and the people 



276 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

constituting the kingdom of God. In the epistles of 
both Paul and Peter, the Christian community is men- 
tioned under the metaphor of an edifice into which 
believers are incorporated as living stones laid upon 
Jesus Christ as a foundation. The first-named of these 
writers mentions prophets and apostles as built into the 
walls immediately upon Christ, the chief corner-stone ; 
and in the vision of the New Jerusalem of the Apocalypse 
twelve stones, or courses of stone, are seen in the foun- 
dation of its walls, inscribed with the names of the 
twelve apostles. This imagery of the New Testament 
was doubtless derived directly from the temple of 
Solomon, and was superior, for the purpose of the writers, 
to any furnished by the tabernacle : yet the latter, 
though inferior, in the time of the apostles, to a structure 
of stone for symbolizing a people organized into a com- 
munity in which God was present, may have been 
planned to serve the same end in the time of their 
nomadic ancestors. Its frame of wood may have been 
synonymous with the walls of stone which enclosed the 
sanctuary erected, in a later age, to inculcate the same 
system of truths on a people dwelling in fixed habitations. 
If so, what number of pieces should we expect to find in 
this wooden frame ? As twelve is the numerical signa- 
ture of the Hebrew people, and the frame of so large 
a structure as was required could not consist of so 
few pieces, the number would probably be determined 
by some multiple of twelve. But forty-eight is the 
multiple of twelve by that number which stands for 
the kingdom of God ; so that the combination of twelve 
and four seals the people represented by twelve as the 
living material of that spiritual temple which the taber- 
nacle was throughout designed to symbolize. 



INTERPRETATION OF THE EDIFICE. 277 

Turning from the frame to its coverings, observe that 
they are four in number. Necessity requiring some- 
thing more than the delicate fabric of the innermost 
curtain, but not dictating whether there shall be two, 
three, four, or five coverings in all, there seems to be no 
other reason, in this case also, why four was chosen than 
that it is the numerical symbol of the idea which the 
whole edifice was designed to inculcate ; namely, that 
the Hebrew community was the kingdom of God. But 
four is the number not only of the curtains, but of the 
colors exhibited by the innermost and principal curtain, 
in which white, blue, purple, and crimson, combined to 
make a new presentation of the thought already sug- 
gested to the mind. But, further, these coverings, so far 
as they were of cloth, were woven in webs four cubits 
wide, as if it were intended that this symbol should not 
fail of accomplishing its end by lack of iteration. 

The dimensions of the curtains were determined by 
the size of the edifice : a sufficient reason thus appear- 
ing for the prescribed length and breadth of the first 
and second, we need not look for significance in the 
number of cubits mentioned in the specifications. The 
silence of Moses in regard to the measure of the third 
and fourth coverings, which were of leather, also favors 
the conclusion that the dimensions of the curtains were 
not significant. But the size of the edifice, and of its 
several parts, seems to have been determined with refer- 
ence to the laws of numerical symbolism. The holy of 
holies is ten cubits in its length, breadth, and height 
respectively. The holy place is ten cubits in width and 
in height, but twenty cubits in length. The court is 
fifty cubits wide, and one hundred cubits long. Every 
24 



278 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

one of these prescribed measures is limited by ten or 
some multiple of it ; and, as we can discover no reason 
for this in necessity or peculiar adaptation, we find one 
in the meaning of ten as employed by the ancients to 
signify such completeness as is reached by numerical g 
augmentation at the end of every decade. The fre- * 
quent occurrence of ten in the dimensions of the edifice, 
suggests and emphasizes the idea of perfection as 
attained by growth from a state of imperfection ; and, if 
there were only tens and powers of ten, we might per- 
haps be constrained to understand that the kingdom of 
God was represented as already existing in this per- 
fected condition. But there are indications in the 
numerical symbolism of the tabernacle, as well as in its 
exhibition of both squares and oblongs, that the institu- 
tion represents that which is destined to be perfect, but 
has not yet attained to perfection. The whole area 
enclosed is fifty cubits wide, and one hundred cubits 
long; so that, in one of the dimensions, the ten is 
multiplied by a number which the Greeks employed to 
indicate progress toward completion in that which is yet 
in a dimidiate or incomplete state. In the temple of Solo- 
mon, the dimensions, though enlarged, are, in all cases 
where they are given, multiples of ten ; but as we are 
ignorant of the dimensions both of the court of sac- 
rifice, and of the entire temple enclosure, we cannot 
positively affirm that the edifice bore any numerical sign 
of incompleteness. But the temple of Ezekiel which 
exhibits a square, or perfected court of sacrifice, one hun- 
dred cubits on a side, has its outer enclosure, though 
square, limited by five as a mark of incompleteness 
appropriate where the holy place had not yet attained to 



INTERPRETATION OF THE EDIFICE. 



279 



the form of a square. The limitation by five is in this 
case still more weighty in its significance because given 
not in cubits, as the dimensions of the court of sacri- 
fice, the holy place, and the holy of holies are given, but m 
reeds, apparently for the sole purpose of exhibiting the 
numeral five hundred (500), rather than the equivalent 
measure in cubits, which, being three thousand (3000), 
would carry no token of deficiency. In the New Jeru- 
salem, all incompleteness having now disappeared, the 
dimensions, given in furlongs to imply the growth of 
the kingdom since it was measured by cubits and reeds, 
are produced by the multiplication of the numerical sig- 
nature of the holy people into a higher power of ten than 
any hitherto appearing in the recorded dimensions of 
symbolic sanctuaries. The exhibition of both five and 
ten in the dimensions of the tabernacle suggests, there- 
fore, that both incompleteness and completeness pertain 
in some way to that which is represented. The places 
in which they respectively occur indicate that the incom- 
pleteness is to be referred to the stage of development 
in which the kingdom of God then existed, and that the 
imperfection is ultimately to disappear. The five im- 
pressed on the court marks that which it represents as 
tending toward, but not yet attaining to, the complete- 
ness signified by ten. 

The same numerical sign of imperfection occurs in 
the height of the court, which was five cubits, whereas the 
tabernacle, restrictively so called, was ten cubits high, 
and in the spaces between the pillars of the court, which 
also measured five cubits ; so that the curtain supported 
by these pillars appeared in divisions five cubits high, 
and five cubits wide. 



SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



This sign of incompleteness appears even in the num- 
ber of the pillars around the court, which, according to 
the specifications, must show ten on the front, ten 
on the rear, and twenty on each side, or sixty in 
all; so that the total sum is equal to the product 
of the numerical sign of the holy nation multiplied 
by the numerical sign of incompleteness. Bahr counts 
each corner-pillar twice, once on the end, and once 
on the side, and thus makes a total of fifty-six ; but 
the accompanying diagram by Riggenbach 1 exhibits 
an arrangement of the pillars which seems to accord 
better with the specifications, and is certainly more 
symmetrical, as it divides without fractions both the 
length and width of the court, expressed in cubits, 
into sections, each having its length equal to the 
height of the curtain. It should be remembered that 
the specifications were not designed to show how the 
arrangement of the pillars would strike the eye of a 
spectator, but to guide the artisans in their work of con- 
struction. They must provide twenty pillars for each 
side, ten for the rear, and ten for the front. They must 
arrange them so that on the front there shall be an 
entrance twenty cubits wide, provided with a curtain 
which can be either let down, or folded up, and secured 
to the fillet of silver extending from pillar to pillar. 
This entrance must be so placed in the front as to have 
equal spaces on each side. The specifications therefore 
divide the ten pillars of the front into four for the 
twenty cubits of the gateway, and three for each of 
the side spaces ; but we are to understand that these 
numbers are not given by one who after the tabernacle 

1 Die Mosaische Stiftshiitte. Basel, 1867. 



INTERPRETATION OF THE EDIFICE. 281 

had been set up tells how many pillars strike his eye, but 
by one who is directing how many shall be constructed. 

The entrances to the three divisions of the tabernacle 
are severally cut into sections by a specified number of 
pillars; the gateway of the court must have four; the 
entrance to the house, five ; and the veil between the 
holy place and the holy of holies, four. No other reason 
for these specifications of number being apparent, we 
seek one in symbolism ; but find it in the significance 
of the sections into which the entrances are thus 
divided, rather than in the pillars, which here, also, are 
numbered for the benefit of the artisans, and not of 
spectators. The four pillars specified for the gate of the 
court, as may be seen by referring to the diagram, cut 
that gateway into four divisions : the five pillars at 
the entrance of the house, if the two outer are placed 
each in front of the side walls, cut that entrance also 
into four sections: the four pillars between the two 
apartments, if the two outer are placed in contact with 
the side walls, give three passages from one apartment 
to the other. That significance is attached to the 
entrances, and not to the pillars, is evident both from 
the subserviency of the latter, and from the enumeration 
in the Apocalypse of the gates of the New Jerusalem, as 
if there were meaning both in the gates themselves, and 
in the number of them. 

What, then, is the import of these doors of the sanc- 
tuary ? The first and second, counting as one moves 
inward, bear the numerical signature of the kingdom of 
God, as if to signify that those who belonged to it might 
pass through, and dwell with Jehovah in the fellowship 
of his house. The first advertised them that they 
24* 



282 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

might in person enter the court, and there transact with 
God through his representatives ; the second, that 
through their representatives they might enter into 
the holy habitation itself. The third door, bearing the 
numerical signature of that which is infinite and divine, 
is thus marked as a transit through which none has a 
right to pass but Jehovah. It is a trisagion, proclaiming, 
to those who have been admitted to the outer apartment, 
the superlative sanctity of the inner chamber. The 
entrance of the high-priest through this triplex passage, 
once in a year, in no degree militates against this 
interpretation, since he merely enters to lustrate the tab- 
ernacle defiled, even to the parts most remote from and 
inaccessible to the people, by their sinfulness ; and, when 
thus admitted for the purpose of purifying the place 
that God may continue to dwell in it, he must immedi- 
ately raise a cloud of incense to hide from his view what 
the apartment contained. It was not his dwelling-place 
as the outer chamber was the home of the priesthood : 
it belonged exclusively to Jehovah. 

One point more in the symbolism of number deserves 
attention before we pass to the consideration of color. 
The inner curtain was divided, over the veil between the 
holy place and the holy of holies, into halves, which were 
again joined together by means of loops and studs. The 
division cannot be accounted for on the ground of 
utility, and seems to have been made solely to sug- 
gest that the habitation consisted of two parts so 
distinct, that one might be removed, and the other remain. 
This suggestion was repeated in the second curtain, 
which also was divided over the partition-veil. Now, the 
number of loops required by the specifications is fifty 



INTERPRETATION OF THE EDIFICE. 283 



for each of the halves, and the number of studs fifty for 
each of the connections. The innermost curtain must 
have fifty loops on each of its connecting selvages, and 
fifty studs for each connection, and the second curtain 
an equal supply of loops and studs ; the studs of the 
first being of gold, and those of the second of copper. 
The limitation of the loops and studs by fifty, and the 
adherence to fifty notwithstanding the difference m 
the length of the two curtains, indicate that the number 
was significant. It is the same numeral which expressed in 
cubits the width of the court, and must be intended to 
convey a similar meaning. It is the multiple of the two 
factors which stand for completeness and incompleteness, 
and hints that the two representations which came 
together into one at this junction of the curtains, sym- 
bolized what was yet incomplete, but destined to attain 
completeness. 

The symbolism of color appears, in the edifice of the 
tabernacle, only in the drapery. The curtain which 
enclosed the court is of bleached linen, to signify that 
the area thus enclosed is a holy place where nothing 
unclean may enter, where the Holy One of Israel dwells 
in the midst of the holy nation. The veil which covers 
the entrance differs, however, from this pure white 
draperv, being diversified with the other sacred colors. 
The admixture of these brilliant hues with the white con- 
veys to the beholder some further information in regard 
to the character of this holy habitation of Jehovah. The 
blue reminds him of its heavenly origin ; the purple, of 
the kingly state of its occupant ; and the crimson marks 
it as a place of life where the living God dwells in the 



284 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



midst of the living creatures to whom he has imparted 
eternal life. Proceeding inward, we find the four colors 
in all the remaining drapery; in the veil before the 
habitation, in that which divides the holy place from 
the holy of holies, and in the curtain designated as 
the tabernacle. The veils at the entrance of the court, 
and at the entrance of the house, are in every respect 
similar. The same colors are specified, are enumerated 
in the same order, whatever that may signify, 1 and are so 
inwoven as to produce a similar pattern. , The English 
version speaks of needlework ; but the original seems to 
indicate that the fabric was woven so as to exhibit the 
blue, the purple, and the crimson, in regular stripes or 
checks, and not in exact imitation of the tabernacle and 
its partition-veil, both of which the skill of the weaver 
had adorned in the same beautiful colors with cherubic 
shapes as a pattern appropriate only in the interior of 
the habitation. 

The crimson thus woven into all the drapery of the 
tabernacle, except the screen which separated its holy 
area from the encampment, proclaimed that the kingdom 
of God is not only holy, but life-giving. It marked the 
symbolic kingdom as the place where the covenant 
people were to become acquainted with, and enjoy their 
God. Through the medium of its testimony and its 
services, as under the Christian dispensation through 
the temple- of Christ's body, they were to have fellow- 
ship with Him whom to know is the true life ; and, the 

1 The colors of the curtain called the tabernacle are always mentioned in the 
order which follows ; namely, fine-twined linen, blue, purple, and crimson ; but in 
all other cases, including the three veils and the sacerdotal garments, the colors are 
enumerated as blue, purple, crimson, and fine-twined linen. No one has suggested 
a reason for the difference of arrangement. 



INTERPRETATION OF THE EDIFICE. 



285 



crimson in the entrance-curtain of the court having 
announced this characteristic of the institution, the veil 
at the entrance of the habitation repeated the announce- 
ment ; and the composite animal figures depicted in the 
interior as symbols of living creatures, whether wrought 
wholly or only partly in crimson, still more explicitly 
attested that in the kingdom of God man is restored to 
the life which was lost through sin. 

As the area of the court represented a kingdom, and 
the house was the dwelling of a king, it was meet that 
one of the colors displayed by the tapestry should be the 
royal purple, to illustrate the kingly majesty of Him who 
here reigns King of Israel. 

As the tabernacle was a pattern of things in the 
heavens, and was designed to institute upon earth such a 
reign of God as exists in heaven, its drapery displays the 
azure hue of the firmament, to indicate that the thing 
symbolized had its origin in the blue expanse where, 
" from the place of his habitation, Jehovah looketh upon 
all the inhabitants of earth," 1 and was brought down 
thence to be in this lower world not only a kingdom, but 
a kingdom of heaven. 

In the chapters on artificial symbolism, the metals 
followed next after color. Observing the same order in 
the work of interpretation, we now inquire what was 
signified by the copper, the silver, and the gold which 
entered into the material of the tabernacle. Copper 
appears only in the court, gold only in the house ; and 
the two meet at the door of the latter, where the five 
pillars stood on sockets or sills of copper, but had capitals 

1 Ps. xxxiii. 14. 



286 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



overlaid with gold. Silver edges the top of the fence 
around the court, and the sill of the house is also silver. 

These phenomena justify the conclusion already 
announced, that gold is reserved to honor the house 
above the court ; the latter representing the earthliness 
in the midst of which Jehovah had fixed his habitation, in 
distinction from the heavenly glory of the habitation 
itself. When the kingdom of God is represented at the 
end of the New Testament in its final stage, the habitation 
has so expanded as to be identical with the court, and 
then copper disappears from the symbolism, and the 
only metal seen is pure gold ; but in the Mosaic taber- 
nacle there was need of copper to represent the present 
earthly condition of that which was to become the city 
of God. Accordingly the pillars of the court had sills of 
copper, and were secured in place with pins of the same 
material; the sills at the door of the house, as they 
marked the boundary between the house and the court, 
were of the metal appropriate to the latter ; while the 
pillars themselves belonged to the house, and received 
a corresponding treatment. On the other hand, the 
interior of the house was resplendent with gold, the 
walls being entirely covered with the most precious and 
the most beautiful of the metals, in honor of its regal 
and divine occupant. 

The significance of the silver has also been explained 
in the preliminary chapter on the symbolism of mineral 
substances. This metal both crowned the court, and 
composed the sill of the house, to present another 
illustration of the superiority of the latter over the 
former. As the metal commonly used for money, and 
as the identical silver which, in the form of half-shekels, 



INTERPRETATION OF THE EDIFICE. 287 



the people had paid for their redemption from the 
punishment to which they had all been liable as unholy 
and sinful, it symbolized a real and efficacious redemp- 
tion whereby men were able to pass from the court to 
dwell in the house of Jehovah as his accepted children, 
and proclaimed the impossibility of ascending from the 
court to the house, except as redeemed sinners. 

Of vegetable substances in the material of the taber- 
nacle, our inquiry respects only acacia-wood; the linen 
drapery having symbolic significance only as a vehicle 
of the four sacred colors, and of the composite animal 
figures in which those colors were displayed. We have 
already had occasion to show that acacia and cedar were 
synonymous, denoting, by means of their extraordinary 
capacity to resist decay, one element of life. It was 
becoming, that whatever timber might be needful m a 
structure designed to represent the union between God 
the Saviour and his redeemed people, as a means of life 
to the latter, should be not only beautiful and fragrant, 
but of the most imperishable species which could be 
obtained. Acacia was such in the wilderness, and so 
was cedar at Jerusalem. There might have been no 
need of cedar in the temple of Solomon as a mark of 
life, but for the absence of such suggestiveness m the 
material of which its walls were constructed. The true 
temple, of which both the Hebrew sanctuaries were 
shadows cast upon the realm of sense, is built of "living 
stones ; " but, there being no life in the masses of rock 
which David and Solomon had made ready, the masonry 
was lined with the most imperishable timber within 
reach, to continue the suggestion of life conveyed by the 



288 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



acacia-wood in the walls of the tabernacle. It is scarcely 
necessary to add that the acacia-wood in the pillars 
around the court had the same import as in the walls of 
the habitation. 

The composite animal figures produced by the skill of 
the weaver on the partition-veil and inner curtain of the 
tabernacle represented creaturely life in its highest 
excellence, such as was found in paradise before the fall, 
when man lived in intimate companionship with God ; 
and such as there will be in the restored paradise of the 
New Jerusalem, when " the tabernacle of God is with 
men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his 
people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their 
God." 1 These cherubic forms symbolize those who 
" have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through 
the gates into the city." 2 They represent the great mul- 
titude of the redeemed out of every kindred, and tongue, 
and people, and nation, dwelling with God in fulness of 
life. 

1 Rev. xxi. 3. 2 Rev. xxii. 14. 



CHAPTER XL 

INTERPRETATION OF THE FURNITURE OF THE 
TABERNACLE. 

The court was chiefly a place of burnt-offerings : 
hence the significance of the court culminated in its 
altar. 

Immediately after the promulgation of the decalogue 
as a foundation of the covenant, Jehovah gave directions 
through Moses for the establishment of intercourse 
and fellowship with himself. The order was given in 
general terms suitable for all occasions, and thus left 
room for more specific directions in regard to the altar 
afterward built for the court of the tabernacle. The 
statute reads, "An altar of earth thou shalt make unto 
me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt-offerings, and 
thy peace-offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen : in all 
places where I record my name I will come unto thee, 
and I will bless thee. And, if thou wilt make me an 
altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone ; for, 
if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. 
Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that 
thy nakedness be not discovered thereon." 1 

It appears from this that an altar must be of earth, or 
of earthy material, unmodified by human art. The 

i Exod. xx. 24-26. 
25 zS9 > 



290 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

earth was the scene of the sacrifice, as heaven was the 
home of the Being to whom it was offered. It was 
earth, however, raised up toward heaven, the conception 
of an altar including that of elevation. In both the 
Latin and Greek languages, the idea of altitude is 
conveyed in the etymology of the word which denotes 
an altar for the worship of the celestial deities. 1 Those 
words are, it is true, more properly applied to the upper 
part of the structure, there being beneath it a base, or 
platform, extending out on all sides on which the 
officiating priests went around the altar restrictively so 
called ; but often the word included the whole fabric. 
In Hebrew, the slaughter of the victims, and not the 
height of the platform on which they were slain, was 
suggested by the etymology of the word denoting that 
elevated platform. Height is, however, as essential to an 
altar for Hebrew worship as if contained in the name 
itself. It might be built of earth, or of stones in their 
natural state ; but it must be elevated to show that the 
offering laid on it was a gift from earth to heaven, 
the party making the oblation thus bringing it as near 
to the other party as possible. It was doubtless with the 
intent of carrying out this representation still further 
that the Phoenician tribes with which the Hebrews were 
surrounded in the land of their inheritance built altars 
on hills, as if by means of such " high places " they 
would approach nearer to the objects of their worship; 
but the law of Moses gave no countenance to such a 

1 See Andrews' Latin Lexicon, art. Altare ; Liddell and Scott's Greek Lexicon, 
art. Bojfiog; and Creuzer's Symbolik, vol. iii. p. 764. To the Dii terrestres and 
the Dii inferni, offerings might be made on an altar not elevated ; but the Dii superi 
required the altare in distinction from the ara. 



INTERPRETATION OF THE FURNITURE. 291 



practice, merely requiring that an altar should be higher 
than the ground on which it was erected. 

It further appears, from the statute concerning altars 
in general, that they were places where God came to 
meet his people. An altar was, like the tabernacle, a 
place of meeting between the two parties, the people 
offering their gifts, and he communicating his blessing. 
As the site of the tabernacle is designated as the place 
where Jehovah had set his name, so in this statute he 
promises to record his name wherever his people erected 
an altar. The idea conveyed in the tabernacle with all 
its elaborate symbolism was, in germ at least, contained 
in any pile of earth or unhewn stones built for the 
purpose of sacrificing ; the worshippers being raised up 
by it, and God coming down to meet and bless his 
worshipping people. 

This statute, being promulgated before the direction to 
construct the tabernacle and its altar, provides, by the 
prohibition of steps, that the person who officiates shall 
not expose his nakedness ; but such an exposure, so 
incongruous with the sacredness of the employment, was 
still more effectually guarded against in the service of 
the tabernacle by means of the drawers which the 
priests must not fail to put on before they ministered 
at the altar. 

In other cases, an altar was said to be built, or ele- 
vated ; but the portable structure used as such in the 
tabernacle is spoken of as made, or constructed, because 
it had a frame of wood overlaid with copper. This 
frame was probably filled with earth to answer the 
requirements of the general statute. There is no 
intimation of this, indeed, in the writings of Moses ; but 



292 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

neither does he mention any other expedient for holding 
the fire in place. Copper as dug out of the ground, 
similar to it in color, and inferior to that metal which 
among metals represented celestial glory,, was appropri- 
ately associated with earth in an altar belonging to a 
permanent and yet. portable institution. By the affinity 
of the copper with the earth, this frame of an altar, 
which could be carried from place to place, fulfilled the 
same end in the expression of thought as an altar of 
earth. 

The wood being, in the first place, designed for a 
frame on which the copper might be fastened so as to 
give sufficient size and strength without too great 
weight, was of acacia for the same reason which required 
this particular species of timber in the planks of the 
house, and the pillars of the court. The tabernacle 
being a place of life, acacia-wood, on account of its 
superiority to decay, was sought for every purpose 
which was to be answered with wood, whether in the 
edifice or its furniture. 

Not only the frame, or wall of the altar, was of acacia 
covered with copper, but also the horns ; and this fact 
may help to determine the significance of these pro- 
jections. The horn is, in cornute animals, the instru- 
ment of power, and thence becomes an emblem of 
strength, and as such is congruous with all the other 
elements combined in the altar as a symbol. It has, 
accordingly, been commonly understood that the horns 
of the altar represented the power of its ministrations. 
But recently it has been suggested 1 that, among the 
metaphorical significations of the horn, height was no less 

.! Hofmann :' Schriftbeweis. Nordlingen, 1859. Vol. ii. 1. p. 257. 



/ 



INTERPRETATION OF THE FURNITURE. 293 



appropriate than strength as an attribute of an altar. 
The horn is the highest part of the animal, carried aloft 
as a badge of power and the honor consequent on 
power, and therefore used as a sign of elevation. ^ To 
lift up the horn is to exalt, either in the physical or in a 
figurative sense. A horn is something lifted, or raised 
up. The word is applied to a hill in the passage, " My 
well beloved hath a vineyard in the horn of the son of 
oil," 1 i.e., in a very fruitful hill. Other languages make 
use of the metaphor in a similar way. 2 The horns of 
an altar may be intended, therefore, to symbolize still 
more emphatically the elevation of the earth on which 
the sacrifice is offered toward heaven, the residence 
of the Being to whom it is presented. The copper with 
which the horns were overlaid seems to countenance this 
interpretation. May not both shades of meaning be com- 
prehended in one and the same emblem? The horns 
elevating the place of sacrifice nearer to heaven, the 
efficacy of the altar was especially conspicuous in these 
symbols of elevation. 

The altars of antiquity varied in form according to the 
different nationality of the worshippers. Those of 
Greece and Rome were usually round ; but all Hebrew 
altars were four-sided, being thus stamped with the 
numerical signature of that kingdom of God in which 
he reveals himself to his people as a Redeemer and 
Saviour as in the material universe he reveals other 
aspects. 

The dimensions of the altar are such that the number 
expressing its length and its breadth is the same which 

1 Isa. v. 1, marginal reading. 

2 Smith's Bible Dictionary, art. Horn. 

25* 



294 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

dominates in the court; but no significance is to be 
attached to this, since the number is not preserved in 
the altar of burnt-offerings in the court of the temple. 
Indeed, a comparison of the tabernacle with the tem- 
ple leads to the conclusion that in both sanctuaries the 
dimensions of the furniture were determined by other 
considerations than symbolic significance. Five cubits 
square was a convenient size for the altar in the court of 
the tabernacle, while for the larger sanctuary of later 
days an altar twenty cubits on a side being neither too 
large nor too small, that was the measure which Solomon 
was instructed to appoint. 1 

During the journeys of the Hebrews from station to 
station, the altar of burnt-offerings was covered with a 
cloth of purple, 2 being the only article of the sacred 
furniture to which this color was assigned. We are to 
understand, therefore, that it was especially representative 
of the regal majesty of Jehovah, maintaining by means of 
its sacrifices, honorary and expiatory, the authority of the 
king while he was dispensing forgiveness and favor. 

The laver between the altar and the house, having in 
itself no significance, is not described in the specifica- 
tions. It provided, however, for a very significant 
ceremony, since it contained a supply of water that the 
priests might wash their hands and their feet when they 
went into the habitation, or ministered at the altar. The 
entire function of the priesthood consisted in the two 
branches of service here indicated, since it was with 
the feet that they entered the sanctuary, and with the 
hands that they served at the altar. Hence the require- 



1 2 Chron. iv. i. 



2 Num. iv. 13. 



INTERPRETATION OF THE FURNITURE. 295 



ment that the hands and the feet, rather than other parts 
of the body, should be washed. It denoted that, though 
consecrated to the sacred office, they nevertheless on 
account of their uncleanness by nature and by contact 
with the impurities of the people, needed a special puri- 
fication before every official act. They might not touch 
the vessels of Jehovah with their hands, nor place their 
feet within his dwelling, without a reminder that he is 
holy, and has chosen his people in order that they also 
may become holy. 
T - J - 

As the officiating priest entered the holy place, he 
beheld on his right hand the table of show-bread ; on the 
opposite side, the chandelier; and at the further end of 
the apartment, midway between the side walls, the altar 
of incense. Of these we propose to speak in the order 
in which they have just been mentioned. 

The table was furnished with two dishes for bread, 
two for frankincense, and probably two for wine. Twelve 
flat loaves of bread in two piles constantly stood on it, 
fresh loaves being brought every sabbath, and the loaves 
which were removed being eaten by the priests only. 
The number of the loaves doubtless indicates that the 
whole covenant people, the twelve tribes of Israel, were 
to participate in this offering to their covenant God. On 
the top of each pile was a dish of frankincense, and near 
by were cups of wine, as seems probable from the 
description of the dishes as suitable to pour with. 1 The 
Septuagint calls them bowls and cups ; and the Jewish 
tradition is, that they contained wine for a libation, or 
drink-offering, such as accompanied every food-offering 

1 Exod. xxv. 29, margin ; Num. iv. 7, margin. 



296 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

at the altar in the court. The table of show-bread was 
in some sense an altar, being the appointed place where 
certain offerings to Jehovah were to be placed before him. 
The materials of these sacrifices were the same as those 
of the food-offerings and drink-offerings in the court. 

We have already endeavored to show that corn and 
wine, or bread and wine, being the product of the life- 
work of the Hebrews, represented, in the symbolism of 
the tabernacle, the fruit of work in the higher sphere 
where one labors not for perishable food, but for that 
which endureth unto everlasting life. As the husband- 
man ploughs and sows, reaps and threshes, grinds the 
wheat into flour, and converts his flour into bread, as he 
plants and prunes his vineyard, gathers the grapes, and 
expresses their juice into the wine-vat; so the true 
Israelite, who is alive unto God, produces the fruit of 
holiness, and enjoys the product of his diligence, as truly 
as the tiller of the earth has pleasure in the bread and 
wine with which he has supplied his table. This is the 
true bread from heaven of which wheat, manna, and other 
kinds of food, are figures ; it is not only the life-product 
of those who have been born again, but their chief 
enjoyment, the sufficient reward of all their labor. 
Knowing, however, that God has even more desire for 
the sanctification of his people than they themselves 
have, they wish him to enjoy with them the fruits of 
this spiritual husbandry. It is this fellowship of God 
with his people in the enjoyment of their sanctification 
which the show-bread represents. They here set before 
him in symbol the fruits of their diligence in the labor 
of the new life. They bring the offering by his own 
appointment, and keep it perpetually before him, that he 



INTERPRETATION OF THE FURNITURE. 297 

may enjoy with them the results of their work, as he has 
also shared in producing them ; for in spiritual as well 
as in natural husbandry, man is only a co-worker with 
God So true is it that Jehovah participates with his 
people in the production of the true bread, that our Lord 
while exhorting his hearers to labor for the food which 
endureth unto everlasting life, claims that he himself, 
as sent by the Father, is " the true bread from heaven, 
"the bread of life," "the bread of God," meaning that 
sanctification is attainable only through him. This, says 
be, is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he 
hath sent. It was only by thus co-operating with God 
in their spiritual husbandry, that they could have fellow- 
ship with him in the enjoyment of its fruits. 

The wine and frankincense which accompanied the 
bread added something to its significance : the former, 
being the constant adjunct of bread, was needful to give 
fulness of meaning to the symbol of life-work and of 
enjoyment ; and the latter connected the bread which 
was a kind of sacrifice, "an offering from the children of 
Israel," with prayer. All offerings by fire to Jehovah 
must be accompanied with frankincense ; and that spice 
was placed on the bread to show that, though not literally 
consumed with fire, it was a sacrifice in the same sense 
as the offerings by fire, and therefore not to be divorced 
from prayer. The statute reads, "Thou shalt put pure 
frankincense upon each row [pile], that it may be on the 
bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire unto 
Jehovah (every sabbath he shall set it in order before 
Jehovah continually), from the children of Israel by an 
everlasting covenant." 2 

1 John vL 2 Lev- xxiv -7. 8 - 



298 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

The loaves, when placed on the table, are called 
show-bread, or bread of the presence or face. The 
designation thus applied to the bread, and not to 
the incense or to the lamps which were equally in the 
presence of God, may have been intended to show 
unmistakably that they were placed there not to be 
eaten, but to be seen. The old loaves were, it is true, 
eaten by the priests, but not till they had been removed 
from the table which always stood so furnished as to 
present to the eye of God a reminder of the good deeds 
of his people. Bread of the presence is a cumulative 
appellation, meaning more than mere bread, because 
the loaves constantly remained before Jehovah as a 
memorial. 

But though it was bread of the presence, and not to 
be actually eaten while on the table by either party, it 
symbolized such enjoyment as is experienced not in 
eating merely, but in eating together. Among the 
Orientals, a table was an emblem of fellowship ; so that 
our Lord puts the treachery of Judas in the strongest 
light by saying, " Behold, the hand of him that betrayeth 
me is with me on the table." 1 So the apostle has in 
mind the same symbolic significance of a table, when he 
tells the Corinthians that, if disposed to accept an 
invitation to a feast given by a heathen, they might eat 
whatever was set before them without asking any 
question ; since, even if the food had been placed on 
the altar of a false god, the idol was nothing, and the 
food as a product of the earth belonged to the true God ; 
but adds that, if informed that any part of the feast had 
been offered in sacrifice to an idol, they ought to avoid 



1 Luke xxii. 21. 



INTERPRETATION OF THE FURNITURE. 2 99 

oartaking of it, lest they should be regarded by the 
^former as participating not in a common meal, but m 
a sacrificial feast, as Israelites after the flesh were 
partakers of the altar when they feasted on the flesh ot 
peace-offerings, and as Christians commune with Christ 
at the Lord's table. 

Such symbolization of the table is frequently employed 
in the New Testament to show the spiritual fellowship 
between Christ and his people, when the kingdom of 
God shall have advanced to a later stage of development 
Our Lord himself says to his disciples, " I appoint unto 
you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; 
that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom. 
That this mode of expressing the thought was not 
peculiar to him, is evident from the use of a similar 
phrase by a person, who, on another and previous 
occasion, exclaimed, "Blessed is he that shall eat bread 
in the kingdom of God." 2 Still another testimony to 
the prevalence of this mode of speaking is found m the 
Apocalypse, where John is directed to write, " Blessed are 
they who are called unto the marriage-supper of the 

Lamb." 3 , 

The form of the table appears to have been deter- 
mined by symbolism only so far as it was four-sided. 
The tables of the Greeks and Romans were sometimes 
circular; 4 but neither a round nor a triangular table 
would have harmonized with the tabernacle, for every 
thing which belonged to the institution must have the 
quadrangular form to stamp upon it the signature of 
the kingdom of God. The significance of acacia-wood 

l Luke xxii. 29, 30. 2 Lu ke xiv. 15. * Rev. xix. 9. 

4 See Fiske's Manual of Classical Literature, Philadelphia 1843, p. 293. 



300 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

and of gold has already been explained, so that it is only 
necessary to notice the fact that the table was con- 
structed of these emblems of life and glory. 

An ornamental band of leaves and flowers wrought in 
solid gold surrounded the table ; indeed, there is much 
reason to think there were two such crowns. 1 These 
souvenirs of vegetable life attached to the table, and 
to the place in which it stood, the idea of life. This 
was, throughout the ancient world, the significance of 
a crown of leaves and flowers. The vital vigor of a 
plant reaches its highest development in the materials 
of such a garland, and therefore they become symbolic. 
But, when used as an emblem by the heathen in their 
worship of Nature, a crown signified life in a physical, 
and not in an ethical sense. A necklace of lotus-flowers 
on an Egyptian mummy was a promise of resurrection 
to such a life as had been lost. 2 But, in Mosaism, life 
meant holiness and its accompanying joy. It was by 
dwelling with Jehovah in his holy habitation that the 
ancient Hebrew was made alive, as it is now by personal 
intimacy with the true God, and the Anointed whom he 
has sent, that the Christian receives eternal life. This 
union of the soul with God was symbolized in the 
tabernacle in many, indeed, one might say in all possible 
ways. The highest developments of both animal and 
vegetable vitality were grouped in the interior to show 
that it was the place of life, the habitation of the Living 
One who has life in himself, and of those to whom he 
has imparted his own quickening Spirit. This garland 
of leaves and flowers around the table shows that the 



1 Exod. xxxvii. n, 12. 

2 Creuzer : Symbolik, ii. 45. 



/ NTE R PR E TA TTON OF THE FURNITURE. 301 

bread is the bread of life, of which if a man eat, he shall 
never die and never hunger. 

When the encampment was to be broken up, the table 
of show-bread was first covered with a cloth of blue ; 
the full service of its golden dishes with the continual 
bread thereon was set in the usual order; and then a 
cloth of crimson was laid over the whole. No other 
article of the furniture was invested with this color m 
preparation for removal. Crimson was the peculiar 
badge of the table among the utensils of the interior, as 
they were distinguished, on the other hand, by the cloth 
of blue from the purple-clad altar of the court. After 
what has been said on the symbolism of color,_ it is 
scarcely necessary to explain the import of the crimson 
cover over the table of show-bread, ft concurred with 
and intensified the testimony of the crown of leaves and 
flowers that the show-bread was the bread of life. 

Opposite the table was the chandelier, or lamp-stand. 
The light emitted by the lamps may have been some- 
times useful to the priests in their ministrations ; but, 
as respects mere utility, an equal number of lamps 
distributed throughout the apartment would have been 
more serviceable. Their aggregation on one stand, and 
the significant seven by which the number of them is 
determined, both indicate that they were placed here to 
assist in the representation of religious thought. Their 
position with reference to the table suggests the possi- 
bility that the light was, in its symbolism, the comple- 
ment of the show-bread. 

With this hint in mind, we ask, What is it of which 
light is the natural emblem ? Sometimes it is used for 
26 



302 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



knowledge, and especially for the knowledge of God 
and his relations to man. Knowledge is light ; and to 
impart knowledge is to enlighten. The figure , is capable, 
however, of expressing something broader and deeper 
than intellectual apprehension of truth. In fact, the 
import of light in the Scriptures usually extends beyond 
the sphere of the intellect into that of the conscience, 
covering the domain of duty as well as of verity. The 
children of light are those who obey, as well as perceive, 
the reality of the invisible and eternal. Hence those 
who are the light of the world not only impart knowl- 
edge to the ignorant, but reproof to the erring. The 
text, "Ye were sometime darkness, but now are ye 
light in the Lord: walk as children of the light, . . . 
and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of 
darkness," 1 implies that a holy life reproves sin as light 
shames into decency those who in darkness would do 
abominable deeds. The admonition, "Do all things 
without murmurings and disputings, that ye may be 
blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, 
in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among 
whom ye shine as lights in the world, holding forth the 
word of life," 2 involves both obedience to the word of 
life in those who hold it forth, and a diffusive influence 
in such obedience. 

We conclude, therefore, that in Hebrew symbolism 
light includes holiness, as well as knowledge. The 
offering of light which the covenant people brought as 
an accompaniment to the fruit of their life-work was the 
symbol of sanctified character. The two symbols are 
mutually complementary. The prayers and the alms of 

1 Eph. v. 8 et seg. 2 phil. ii. I4 e t S eq. 



INTERPRETATION OF THE FURNITURE. 303 

a good man come up as a memorial before God ; and 
his example, by holding forth the word of life, diffuses 
an assimilating influence. 

But this light of holiness, man is as unable to produce 
of himself as is a lamp to shine without oil, and oil is 
the symbol of the Holy Spirit; so that the oblation of 
light which the covenant people presented to Jehovah m 
the tabernacle contained in itself a declaration that they 
were sanctified by the indwelling Spirit of God. The 
same idea was again brought to view in the number of 
the lamps; seven representing a transaction between 
God and man, and therefore in Mosaism standing for 
the covenant itself. The illumination was effected by the 
co-operation of the infinite and the finite ; and the lamps 
were seven because that is the sum of the numerical 
signatures of the two parties united in producing the 

light. , 

The lamp-stand served not merely to bear the lamps, 
but to assist in the symbolism. It represents the 
covenant people, the organized community, who by the 
example of their obedience shine for the illumination of 
the world. For under the old covenant, as under the 
new the church is the pillar and stand of the truth, 
holding forth and diffusing its light. The seven 
branches of the stand indicate that it is not a merely 
human institution, but that God is in the midst of it, as 
in the Apocalypse our Lord was seen walking m the 
midst of the seven golden chandeliers which represented 
the churches of Asia. 

The peculiar ornamentation of the shaft and the 
branches was derived from the vegetable world, and 
was doubtless parallel in import with the crown of leaves 



3<H SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

and flowers attached to all other utensils of the house. 
The flowers were in this case, if not in the others, those 
of the almond, the earliest tree to blossom and sprout in 
the spring. 1 A branch of an almond-tree was the sign 
which God gave to Jeremiah that the word he was 
commissioned to declare should be speedily fulfilled. 
"Jeremiah, what seest thou ? And I said, I see a rod of 
an almond-tree. Then said the Lord unto me, Thou 
hast well seen : for I will hasten my word to perform 
it." 2 This tree being the earliest manifestation of 
vitality in the vegetable kingdom, its buds, flowers, and 
fruit, when employed in the representation of religious 
thought, were expressive symbols of life. It was thus 
that they signified that Aaron and his sons were chosen 
to draw near to Jehovah when, each tribe having brought 
a branch of this tree, Aaron's rod produced buds, leaves, 
and fruit, while the others exhibited no such phenomena. 3 
The superior vitality of Aaron's rod proved that he was 
called to approach the Living One, and be the medium 
through which life might be imparted to the people. 
In like manner the blossoms, fruit, and leaf-buds of 
the almond-tree, introduced into the ornamentation of the 
chandelier, were designed to show that the light emitted 
from its lamps was the light of life ; that in the church, 
as in its Lord, is life, and the life is the light of men. 

The chandelier was the only article of furniture in the 
tabernacle made of solid gold; but we are not to 
conclude that it was therefore of superior dignity. The 

1 The almond-tree, "Ipt!/, derives its name from 1ptSf,& wake. It is, says 

Gesenius, the waker: so called as being the earliest of all trees to awake from the 
sleep of winter. 

2 Jer. i. ii, 12. 3 Num. xvii. 



INTERPRETATION OF THE FURNITURE. 305 

other utensils were probably made of wood to diminish 
their weight ; but such a device was unnecessary and 
perhaps impracticable in the case of the chandelier. 
When the others were plated, they were all equal in 
splendor of appearance, and in the symbolism of the 
metal which imparted such glory. Nothing less splendid 
than gold would have been proper in the habitation of 
the heavenly King. 

Of the three articles of furniture in the outer apart- 
ment, the altar of incense occupied the place of highest 
honor, being directly in front of the holy of holies, and 
as near the partition-veil as the burning of incense 
permitted. 

Although in no way connected with bloody sacrifices, 
it bears the same name as the altar in the court, a 
name derived from the slaughter of animals. This fact 
indicates a close affinity of some kind with the structure 
from which it derives a name so foreign to its ministra- 
tions. It was indeed an altar in the sense that oblations 
to Jehovah were placed upon it, and that he was under 
engagement there to meet his people, accept their 
offerings, and communicate his blessing. The name, 
though originally implying the slaughter of animals, had, 
by a broader application, come to denote any elevation 
on which either vegetable or animal sacrifices were 
presented. But, being an altar only in a secondary 
meaning of the word, it was not within the scope of the 
statute which required that every altar to which slain 
victims were brought should be of earth or of unhewn 
stones. 

The altar of incense was the place where those whose 
26* 



306 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

sins had been expiated with bloody sacrifices in the 
court presented to Jehovah the oblation of prayer. It 
signified that, as the incense diffused a sweet odor, so 
the prayers of his redeemed and sanctified household 
are a delight to the heavenly King. We are not only 
assured by the testimony of Scripture that this interpre- 
tation is correct, but are able to discover such a 
correspondence between the incense and the worship, 
that they would naturally be associated, and become 
mutually suggestive, in the Oriental mind. Fbr in prayer 
the soul breathes forth the holy affections which are 
immanent in it as the fragrance is in the spices before 
they are thrown upon the censer. Worship brings into 
lively exercise and consciousness the admiration, grati- 
tude, filial confidence, and devotion which characterize 
the household of God. In their presentation of such 
feelings, he takes great delight : so that the symbolism 
in which the Orientals represented worship by means of 
sweet spices, exhaling odors in the highest degree 
grateful to the bodily sense, is by no means arbitrary, 
but founded in nature. 

The altar itself was an element in the representation, 
showing that the incense was offered to Jehovah, and 
presented at a place by him appointed for such service. 
It was called the golden altar in distinction from that 
in the court, which was of copper ; but the metal was, in 
this case as in that, laid over a frame of acacia. Both 
the metal and the wood have been already interpreted ; 
and we need only pause to observe that the metal 
corresponds with the place in which the altar stood, as 
the copper on the altar of burnt-offering corresponded 
with the earlier and more earthly state of the kingdom 



INTERPRETATION OF THE FURNITURE. 307 



of God represented in the court. The golden garland 
surrounding this altar, just above the rings by which it 
was carried, had the same meaning as the similar 
ornament around the table. 

By collating the symbolism of the three utensils in 
the outer chamber, we find that collectively they 
represent an oblation to Jehovah on the part erf those 
who are permitted to draw near to him, consisting of 
good works, good influence, and acceptable worship. 

Such offerings are appropriate to the place as the 
habitation of God, and to the persons who present them 
as members of his household. The service here rep- 
resented is that which one renders who has come to 
the consciousness of God's fatherhood, and has trusted 
the divine promise to absolve from guilt, but has not yet 
been admitted within the veil which conceals the glories 
of eternity ; who still walks by faith, and not by sight. It 
is a service which could be rendered, under the dispen- 
sation then existing, only on the ground of an expiation 
of sin symbolized in the sacrifices of the court, and to be 
realized at some time in the future. It was therefore 
rendered through priestly representatives. It is the ser- 
vice which now, when expiation is complete by the death 
of Christ, is rendered not by representative priests, but 
by all members of the Christian church, till they are 
called one by one within the veil. This service will 
continue to be rendered by the successive generations of 
believers onward to the second advent of Christ. 

As the sacrifices of the court were terminated at his 
. first advent, by the one offering which needed no 
repetition/so the rites of the outer apartment will cease 



308 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



at his second coming, by the reception of those who 
perform them into the holy of holies, where he, as our 
forerunner, has already entered. No sooner had he 
completed his work of expiation, than the partition- veil 
between the two chambers was rent in twain to signify 
that, redemption having advanced to the second stage 
of its historical development, those who formerly wor- 
shipped only in the court might now enter the habitation, 
and draw near to God in person; might even, through 
their representative and forerunner, pass within the veil. 
The Christian may not, it is true, while in the mortal 
body enter the holy of holies ; but by faith he follows 
his great high-priest to the mercy-seat, as the pious 
Hebrew, standing in the court, followed in like manner 
the officiating priest to the table, the chandelier, and the 
golden altar. 

We are now to interpret the significance of the ark of 
the covenant. 

The fact that it was designed for the safe-keeping of 
the two tablets on which the decalogue was written, is 
one of many indications that these tablets were regarded 
as very precious. If one observes that the ten words 
were inscribed on stone for the sake of permanence ; that 
this durable record was preserved in a chest specially 
constructed for the purpose ; that this depository of the 
inscription was the sole furniture of that apartment in 
the tabernacle, which was not merely the holiest of all, 
but accessible only through the outer chamber and the 
court ; that the tabernacle itself was the centre of the 
encampment, being surrounded first by the tribe of Levi,' 
and then by the other tribes, arranged in a second 



INTERPRETATION OF THE FURNITURE. 309 



cordon, — he must conclude, that as its kernel is the 
most valuable part of a nut, so the words inscribed on 
the tablets of testimony were more important than the 
successive shells and hulls by which they were pro- 
tected and preserved. 

The value thus attributed to the decalogue results 
from its being a testimony of God, revealing not merely, 
as perhaps we have been accustomed to think, what he 
wills, but what he is. The " ten words " inscribed on 
these tablets do, indeed, contain commandments ; but 
first of all they testify that God is a deliverer. The 
inscription commences, " I am Jehovah thy God, which 
have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of 
the house of bondage." 1 By its requirements and pro- 
hibitions, the document testified that Jehovah was holy, 
and required holiness of his people. Because of this 
witness which the inscription bore concerning Jehovah, 
it was called the testimony ; and because its Author had 
propounded it as the basis of the covenant he wished to 
make with the Hebrews, and they had formally and 
solemnly consented to receive it as such, it was also 
called the covenant? For corresponding reasons the 

1 Exod. xx. 2. 

2 There is a prevalent impression that the old covenant was really no covenant 
at all, but an economy established by the will of one of the parties, the other having 
no liberty of rejecting it. An attentive reading of the history will show, however, 
that, the covenant being first proposed in general terms, the people responded, 
"All that Jehovah hath spoken we will do ; " and that, the << ten words " being 
then announced with the addition of a code of "judgments" contaimng in a 
condensed form nearly all the theocratic laws afterward promulgated, the people 
again responded, "All the words which Jehovah hath said will we do." The 
proposed covenant, having been twice accepted by the Hebrews, was formally 
ratified with such sacrifices, and sprinkling of blood, as usage required for the rati- 
fication of a covenant ; the people protesting for the third time, " All that Jehovah 
hath said will we do, and be obedient." The decalogue is to be regarded, therefore, 



3io SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



ark was sometimes termed the ark of the testimony, and 
sometimes the ark of the covenant. 

Over these tablets of testimony was the throne of 
Jehovah, where he dwelt between the cherubs which 
stood one on either end of the cover of the ark. Above 
this cover, or mercy-seat, as it is termed in the English 
version, and between these cherubs, was in particular, as 
the tabernacle was in a more general sense, the place 
where the God of the Hebrews localized himself in the 
midst of the people whom he had chosen that they 
should be holy. His throne was thus established on the 
testimony, or covenant, as a foundation. There can be 
little doubt that two passages in the Book of Psalms, 
which are more alike in the original than in the English 
version, refer to this position of his throne over the 
decalogue. One of them reads, " Justice and judgment 
are the habitation [or, in the margin, establishment] of 
thy throne." 1 Robinson's Gesenius gives "foundation" 
as a more exact equivalent of the Hebrew word than 
" habitation " or " establishment." Employing this more 
accurate definition in place of "habitation," the other 
passage reads, " Righteousness and judgment are the 
foundation of his throne." 2 At all events, the relative 
position of the mercy-seat, or throne of grace, to the 

not as a law imposed upon the Hebrews without their consent, but as a testimony 
for holiness which Jehovah proposed, and they accepted, as the basis of a mutual 
agreement. True, that all its requirements were of natural and inevitable obliga- 
tion ; but the proposition made to the Hebrews was, that they should promise 
obedience, and thus put themselves on a different platform from the rest of man- 
kind. These " ten words " were a special statute accepted as such by the Hebrews, 
enforcing upon them what was in itself obligatory. Without the covenant, they 
would have been under the same obligation as the rest of mankind : with it, they 
were bound by their own promise. 

1 Ps. lxxxix. 14. 2 p s . xcvii. 2. 



INTERPRETATION OF THE FURNITURE. 311 



tablets bearing witness to the holiness of God, is a sym- 
bolic utterance of the same truth which awakened once 
and again the enthusiasm of the psalmist. Over the 
testimony, as the basis of the covenant, was the place 
where Jehovah dwelt among his people as their God and 
King. 

Here was his throne between the two cherubs of gold, 
and in the midst of the cherubic figures wrought into 
the tapestry of the tabernacle itself. The cherub being 
a symbol of redeemed and perfected humanity, and the 
holy of holies representing the kingdom of God in its 
perfected condition, we are constrained to look, for the 
reality of what is here exhibited, backward to the earthly 
paradise where God and man walked together in friendly 
companionship, or forward to the restored paradise of 
the New Jerusalem, or upward to that paradise where 
our Lord went on the day of his death. " To-day," said 
he to the penitent malefactor, " shalt thou be with me in 
paradise." 1 Is there not, then, even now a place in the 
heavens where the spirits of just men made perfect are 
with God, seeing as they are seen, and knowing as they 
are known, walking by sight and not by faith ? Is not this 
the paradise which was prepared for man on the earth, 
but removed to heaven on account of his sin ? Is not 
this the tabernacle which is to come down from God out 
of heaven, to be established on the earth as the final 
state of his kingdom here ? 

The garden of Eden was no sooner vacated by man 
than it was placed under the care of cherubs, to be kept 
by them till the original heir should be restored to his 
inheritance. A tableau of cherubs around the throne of 

1 Luke xxiii. 43. 



312 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

Jehovah is, therefore, a prediction and a promise to men 
of restoration to such fellowship with God as Adam 
enjoyed before the earth ceased to be a paradise. It 
authorizes them to expect that redemption will restore 
not only fallen humanity to holiness, and fellowship with 
God, but the material universe to its pristine fitness 
for, and symbolism of, such a condition of mankind, 
making it a tabernacle of God where he will meet his 
people. The association of the cherubs with the throne 
of God implies that redeemed men are to occupy some 
place free from the curse which rests upon the earth ; 
and their connection with Eden, as its keepers, suggests 
that the earth itself is to be delivered from the bondage 
of corruption into the glorious exemption from death of 
the children of God. The presence of the cherubs on the 
mercy-seat bearing such significance is in harmony 
with all the other symbols of the holy of holies. Its 
cubical form, the decade in its dimensions, its colors of 
holiness, heavenliness, kingliness, and life, its undecay- 
ing wood, and its glorious gold, unite in predicting that, 
when the kingdom of God reaches its final development, 
the outward state and surroundings of the redeemed will 
correspond in excellence with their high calling as the 
household of God. 

But we have yet to mention what is perhaps the most 
important element in the symbolism of the cover of the 
ark. It was not only the throne of the theocratic king 
founded on the testimony of the decalogue that he was 
holy, and the throne of the Living One surrounded by 
creatures to whom he had imparted life as nearly resem- 
bling his own as it was possible that creatures should 
possess ; but the throne of grace, where assurance was 
given to sinners that their sin was taken away. 



INTERPRETATION OF THE FURNITURE. 3*3 

When a sin-offering had been slain, the blood was 
sprinkled on the altar to show that, by the death of his 
proxy, he who had forfeited his life by sin was delivered 
from the sentence of death, and permitted to draw near 
to God. This was represented by the application to 
the altar, as the place where God met his people, of the 
blood as a symbol of life. Snch a "P™^«^g 
that the life of the sacrificer was covered with the life 
of the proxy slain in his stead, so that he was entitled 
to be a living member of the theocracy. In ordinary 
instances of the sin-offering, this covering of the soul of 
the sacrificer with the soul of his proxy was sufficiently 
represented and sealed by the sprinkling of the blood 
on the altar of sacrifice, that being the place where 
Jehovah met his people, and transacted with them 
through his representatives the priests ; but on the day 
of the annual atonement, or covering (for the two words 
are equivalent), when the sins of the priests themselves, 
and of the nation as such, were to be cancelled, he 
blood was brought into the holy of holies, and sprinkled 
upon, and in front of the capporeth, or golden cover of 
the cirk. 

In this, the' most solemn of the expiatory representa- 
tions of the calendar, it was necessary to bring the sym- 
bol of life even to the holiest place of the tabernacle to 
show that the priests and the nation were still alive unto 
God, and permitted to draw near to him in his appointed 
ordinances, each class according to its degree. If the 
blood had been applied to the altar in the court as was 
sufficient in case of a sin-offering for an individual, the 
question might still rise whether the nation as such 
could draw near through its mediatorial officials into the 
27 



314 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

habitation, and whether the priests were so cleansed 
that Jehovah would permit them to officiate. But the 
reception of the symbol of the nation's life before and 
upon the throne of Jehovah exhibited and sealed his 
acceptance of them as justified, and entitled to live in 
his presence. 

The capporeth, or golden cover of the ark, was there- 
fore not only a source from which Jehovah issued assur- 
ances that sin was taken away, but the very highest 
possible source from which such an assurance could 
proceed. . Ordinarily, it was enough that the sinner 
should be assured by the application of the symbol of 
his life to the altar in the court ; but, when the most 
solemn expiation of the year was celebrated, the ritual 
required that the priest should bring the blood to the 
very throne of the king. There could be no affirmation 
that sin was cancelled more satisfactory in regard to its 
authority and its comprehensiveness than this. It came 
immediately from the throne of the king, and of necessity 
opened to the restored nation every thing in the tab- 
ernacle to which they could have been admitted if 
blameless. 

The literal meaning of capporeth, the word translated 
mercy-seat, is cover. Is it, then, so called because it was 
a lid for trie ark, or with reference to the covering of 
sin ? The first-mentioned reason occurs at once to 
every reader, and satisfies him till he finds how it is 
connected with what is now called expiation, but was 
conceived of by the Hebrews as the covering of sin. 
Unquestionably the expiation, or covering of sin, was 
solemnly declared and authoritatively sealed by the 
sprinkling of blood on the capporeth, or mercy-seat. In 



INTERPRETATION OF THE FURNITURE. 3 '5 

view of this fact, the translators of ancient versions as 
for example, the Septuagint and the Vulgate, and of 
modern versions, such as those in common use m Ger- 
many and in English-speaking countries, have rendered 
the word by something more specific than cover.* They 
have take/into consideration that the Hebrew substan 
tive is applied only to this object, is therefore a proper 
name is cognate with the verb to expiate, or to make 
3 tion, nd is to be explained in the light of the pur- 
pose it subserved. They agree in calling it by names 
which imply that this was the place m the tabernacle 
which, above any other, showed forth the acceptance 
of expiation for sin. 

Attempts have been made to unite the two senses m 
which the mercy-seat was a cover, as if it expiated sin 
by covering the testimony of the decalogue against it 
but this is not to cover sin in the Hebrew sense whreh 
was to place over it either the life thereby forfeited or 
some authorized substitute. When thus covered, it was 
regarded as taken away, or cancelled. The proper name 
capporeth, or covering, is not, therefore, so far as we can 
discover, applied to the lid of the ark because it covers 
the testimony, but because it was the place from 
which the covering of sin was authoritatively announced. 

With this idea of the mercy-seat, the attitude of the 
cherubs well accords ; for they stood with their faces 
toward it, as if what it signified was especially attractive, 
wonderful, and agreeable. The posture of these symbols 
of redeemed humanity expresses the gratitude for expia- 
tion which the vision of the Apocalypse represents them 
as uttering in song. 

x TheSeptuaginthas Ua<m,pw Mfepa, the Vulgate M Uiatorium % Luther's 
version GnadenstuhL 



3i6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

In the migrations of the tabernacle, the ark, including 
of course the mercy-seat and its cherubs, was enveloped 
first with the partition-veil, then with the leather, and 
afterward with the cloth of blue common to all the uten- 
sils of the habitation. It is to be noted, however, that 
the blue cover of the ark was laid over the leather ; and 
not under, as in the case of the altar of incense, the 
chandelier, and the table. The ark was thus distinguished 
from the three other utensils of the habitation, as the 
four were from the altar of the court. All of the four 
were invested with the chromatic signature of heavenli- 
ness ; but the ark alone wore it in full view of all spec- 
tators, to show that, as it pertained to the kingdom of 
God in its final and complete state, it was heavenly in an 
eminent degree. The partition-veil, laid over the ark as 
its first covering, preserved as far as was possible that 
representation of its sacredness of which the veil was the 
instrument when suspended in its place. The tapestry, 
which concealed the sacred emblems from sight when at 
rest, covered them when carried in procession. They 
were thus surrounded with the same sacred colors 
and the same cherubic figures symbolizing a holy and 
heavenly kingdom of life. 



CHAPTER XII 



INTERPRETATION OF THE PRIESTHOOD OF THE 
TABERNACLE. 

A priest is one who mediates between God and man. 
He presents the gifts and sacrifices which the worshipper 
may not, or dare not, offer in person, and brings back 
from God the assurance of acceptance and favor. 
Among the Hebrews, as among kindred nations, priestly 
functions were discharged by the head of each family 
till the institution of the covenant at Sinai. This, by 
consecrating one family as priests for the nation and 
requiring all sacrifices to be presented m front of the 
tabernacle of meeting, put an end to the ancient 
practice. 

In the narrative of the ratification of the covenant, 
the family priests are mentioned for the last time. 
They had no active part, however, in the sacrifices ; 
which were conducted by Moses as the mediator of the 
covenant, and young men whom he chose as his 
assistants, perhaps on purpose to show that the old 
regime had passed away. As the mediator of the cove- 
nant divinely authorized to communicate to the people 
the messages of their God, and to God the messages of 
his people, Moses would be the first person thought 
of for the priesthood. But, his hands being already 



2; 



,* 317 



3i8 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



sufficiently occupied, the office was conferred on his 
brother, as the person nearest to him in consanguinity, 
and harmony of feeling. As before in the several 
households, so in the nation, the office was hereditary. 

It is easy to see that such a change in the tenure of 
the priesthood would help to consolidate the families 
which before had worshipped at separate altars. The 
union of all Hebrews, of whatever parentage, in the 
worship of the tabernacle, was an important element of 
national life. The families were henceforth, at least so 
far as concerns the rites of religion, united together as a 
nation ; and the family of Aaron were, by the appoint- 
ment of Jehovah, mediators between the nation and 
himself. 

The nation thus constituted not only belonging to 
Jehovah as other nations did, but being eminently his by 
virtue of their election as his covenant people, the 
family of Aaron were elected to a corresponding 
eminence above their kindred ; not only belonging to 
Jehovah as all Hebrews did, but being in a peculiar 
sense his for the service of mediation. As the entire 
nation were holy, or separate from other nations, so this 
family were called to be holy, or were separated from 
other Hebrews for the office and ministrations of the 
priesthood. As this separation of the Hebrews from 
the rest of mankind, and this privilege of being in a 
peculiar sense the property or inheritance of Jehovah, 
did not begin with any act of their own, but they were 
chosen to be his and to be holy ; so Aaron and his sons 
did not take the prerogatives of the priesthood sponta- 
neously, but were called to the office by the election of 
Jehovah himself. 



IN TERPRETATION OF THE PRIESTHOOD. 3*9 

The Hebrew priesthood was instituted because the 
people were not qualified to draw near to God in person. 
By virtue of their election, the people of Jehovah were 
entitled to dwell in his habitation, but their con- 
ciousness of sin made them afraid of him therefore, ,m 
condescension to their inability to understand the 
greatness of his love, he provided a class of person 
who, as the representatives of his elect, imght m ^their 
stead enter the tabernacle. To draw near to God and 
o be a priest, are equivalent expressions. Aaron drew 
near in behalf of those who were elected to have 
spiritual communion with God, but were not yet deliv- 
ered from bondage to fear ; and his admiss ion wi hi the 
habitation signified that they were entitled to a corre- 
sponding access in spirit, that they were called a 
kingdom of priests for the reason that they -might thus 
draw near to God in spiritual fellowship. By his office 
he was qualified to do outwardly and symbolically what 
all might do in spirit and in truth. But, before Aaron 
could enter the holy habitation in behalf of the people, 
he must officiate at the altar of sacrifice and expiate sin; 
for his constituents were sinful, and the representation 
of their approach to God as members of his househo d 
must be preceded by signs that their sin was taken 
lay: otherwise it might be inferred that Jehovah was 
indifferent whether his people were holy or unholy _ 

The Hebrew priesthood therefore symbolized m 
general the expiation of sin, and the admission to film 
intercourse with God effected thereby. Accepting this 
as the correct interpretation of the symbol in its entire- 
ness we proceed to consider separately the several parts 
of which the representation consisted. The particulars 



320 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

to be interpreted are, election to the office, the compara- 
tive holiness of the incumbents, the requirements of 
bodily soundness, the official garments, and the conse- 
cration. 

It is not only historically true that Aaron and his 
descendants were priests by the election of Jehovah 
declared through Moses the mediator of the covenant, 
and confirmed by the sign of the almond-rod, but such a 
calling of God is essential to the idea of the office ; for 
a priest is one who conies near to God, dwells with him 
in his house as a companion in behalf of others because 
more acceptable than they. The priest is preferred 
before those whom he represents : therefore no man may 
take this honor to himself, or be exalted to it by his 
fellows. " Blessed is the man," says the psalmist, " whom 
thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he 
may dwell in thy courts : we shall be satisfied with the 
goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple." 1 Only 
those thus chosen by God were priests. 

This divine election of the family of Aaron out of 
Israel signifies that those who have been admitted to 
filial fellowship with the Holy One of Israel were called 
thereto by the sovereign choice of God. As Jehovah 
chose the family of Aaron out of the tribe of Levi, the 
Levites out of the twelve tribes of Israel, and the He- 
brews out of all the nations, so he has chosen his spiritual 
seed out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and 
nation. Without such election they would have remained 
like the rest of mankind, strangers to the covenant, 
instead of becoming " a holy priesthood to offer up spirit- 

i Ps. Ixv. 4. 



INTERPRETATION OF THE PRIESTHOOD. 321 



ual sacrifices." 1 The New-Testament writers make 
this divine election very prominent, declaring that those 
who by receiving Christ become sons of God, were born 
not of the will of man, but of God, 2 were called to be 
saints, 3 were chosen before the foundation of the world 
that they should be holy, 4 were predestinated to the 
adoption of children, 5 were elect unto obedience and 
sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. 6 

The priesthood were elected to holiness. The whole 
people, as a kingdom of priests, were to be a holy nation ; 
but the family of Aaron were chosen to a still higher 
ceremonial purity than was required of their brethren. 
When Korah and his companions claimed the right to 
officiate as priests, they did so on the ground that all the 
congregation were holy ; and the reply to the mutineers 
was, " To-morrow Jehovah will show who are his, and 
who is holy ; and will cause him to come near unto him : 
even him whom he hath chosen will he cause to come 
near unto him." 7 The budding of Aaron's rod decided 
the question between him and those who claimed the 
office on the ground that all were holy. It was a sign 
that Aaron was elected to a superiority of holiness 
among the Hebrews, as the nation was to a similar 
eminence among the nations of the earth. 

The same thing is evident from the legal ordinances 
concerning the priesthood. Many things allowed by the 
law of nature were by the law of Moses forbidden to a 
Hebrew. Beasts, birds, and fishes being classified into 



1 1 Pet. ii. 5. 
4 Eph. i. 4. 
7 Num. xvi. 5. 



2 John i. 13. 
5 Eph. i. 5. 



3 Rom. i. 7. 
6 1 Pet. i. 2. 



322 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



clean and unclean, one who belonged to the holy nation 
might not eat of any thing pronounced unclean, however 
much esteemed as an article of diet by Gentiles, on 
penalty of becoming unholy in his own person, and unfit 
for his usual participation in the symbolic transactions 
of the tabernacle. Dead bodies and diseased persons 
were pronounced by the law, unclean ; and any Hebrew 
who touched a dead body, or came in contact with a 
person suffering with certain diseases, became also 
unclean, and incompetent to appear in the court of the 
tabernacle. But a priest was not only bound by all ordi- 
nances which separated the Hebrews as a holy nation 
from the rest of mankind, but by requirements and 
prohibitions peculiar to his class. It was lawful for a 
layman to become defiled by touching the dead, provided 
he was afterward duly cleansed ; but a priest was forbid- 
den to do it, except when his father or mother, son or 
daughter, brother or virgin sister, had died. With this 
exception, he might not incur defilement even for neces- 
sary offices connected with the burial of the dead. In 
contracting marriage, a priest must not become one flesh 
with a dissolute or a divorced woman, but marry either a 
virgin, or a widow of good character. The high-priest 
must be even more strict than the common priest, both 
in respect to mourning and wedding. He might not 
defile himself for the dead, even when his nearest kins- 
man died ; but must leave to others the rites of mourn- 
ing and sepulture, discharging the duties of his office as 
at other times, without even rending his clothes, or 
uncovering his head. He must marry only a virgin of 
Hebrew origin ; not being allowed, as other priests were, 
to take a widow or a proselyte. 



INTERPRETATION OF THE PRIESTHOOD. 323 

Now, this outward separation from common things 
symbolized a corresponding separation from what is 
common and unclean in the field of ethics ; and the 
representation was more impressive because repeated in 
the different classes called to this outward holiness, and 
because greater and greater strictness was required of 
the several successive classes as they were appointed to 
a nearer and nearer approach to Jehovah in his taber- 
nacle. The election of the Hebrews to be a holy nation 
set forth before the eyes of men the truth that Jehovah 
is holy, and that the true Israel who in spirit and in 
truth have access to him must be holy : the calling of 
the priests to a greater strictness of life than was 
required of the common people, and the requirement of 
a still higher degree of holiness in the head of the 
sacerdotal order, were concurrent and cumulative 
testimonies to the same truth. 

Closely connected in significance with the ascetic 
abstinence from things permitted to other Hebrews, 
which the law demanded of the family of Aaron, was 
the requirement of bodily soundness in those who 
performed the most sacred functions of the priesthood. 1 
All male descendants of Aaron belonged to the order 
by right of birth ; but, if one had any corporal defect, he 
could not draw near to Jehovah as an officiating priest. 
He was entitled to maintenance the same as if physi- 
cally whole, and might be employed in some subsidiary 
duties ; 2 he might eat the bread of his God as the other 
priests did, but not offer it ; he could not go in unto the 
veil, nor come nigh unto the altar. 

1 Lev. xxi. 16-24. 2 See note on p. 64. 



SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



The reason of this requirement is not in the necessity 
of excluding from the worship bodily deformities as 
objects disagreeable to the eye ; for some of the defects 
mentioned in the law would be concealed by the dress, 
and might remain unknown to any mortal but the unfor- 
tunate man himself. It is worth while to notice in this 
connection the similar requirement of heathen religions 
that their priests should be free from blemish. 1 The 
Greeks even went so far sometimes as to select the most 
beautiful men for the sacerdotal office. 2 Their religion 
set before them cosmical perfection as the object of 
highest admiration, as Mosaism, in like manner proposed 
the ethical perfection of Jehovah for the admiration of 
the Hebrews. Physical faultlessness in the Hebrew 
priest was symbolic, as it was in those who ministered 
at the altars of Zeus, but intended to convey a different 
suggestion. Its symbolism was in accordance with the 
spirit and doctrine of Mosaism, as the similar require- 
ment in heathenism was with the system it aided to 
represent. The soundness of physique which the Mo- 
saic law required in one who drew near to the covenant 
God in his holy habitation, signified that Jehovah had no 
ethical blemish. It thus coincided in its testimony with 
the requirement of an ascetic separation from common 
life. 

In almost every modern nation there are some rem- 
nants of the ancient custom of representing office by 
garments of peculiar material, shape, and color. History 
registers the decline of the custom, but not its birth and 

1 Fiske : Manual of Classical Literature, p. 162. 

2 Creuzer : Symbolik, iv. 645. 



Fig. 31. 

SUBORDINATE PRIEST IN COSTUME. 



INTERPRETATION OF THE PRIESTHOOD. 325 

growth ; for it was as powerful as ever in the earliest 
age which has transmitted to us its records. In the 
time of Moses, both kings and priests in every country 
were clothed in a garb not only distinctive, but emblem- 
atic. The king wore, it may be, a crown, and the priest 
a mitre ; the former was invested perhaps in purple, and 
the latter in shining white. The two offices, if not 
united in the same person, were distinguished by differ- 
ent official garments. The dress in which the priest 
offered sacrifice was not the same as the royal apparel of 
the king, but the vestments of each were intended to 
represent the peculiarities of his office. This being 
true of regal and sacerdotal attire throughout the ancient 
world, we infer that the holy garments which Moses was 
directed to make for Aaron and his sons were not onjy 
distinctive, but symbolic. They were both badges and 
emblems, distinguishing the wearer as an official, and 
showing the nature of his office. 

In interpreting the significance conveyed by the gar- 
ments of the Levitical priesthood, it will be convenient 
to treat first of the four pieces worn by priests of ordi- 
nary rank, and afterward of those peculiar to their 
chief. 

Is there, then, no significance in the fact that this 
official costume consisted of four pieces ? We might 
think so if this were the only instance in which the 
number occurred in the symbols of the tabernacle. But 
as four limits the colors of the tapestry, the ingredients 
of the incense, the spices of the holy anointing oil, 
the composite parts of the cherubs, we conclude that the 
same signature of the kingdom of God was designedly 
impressed on the official costume of those who were 
28 



326 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



elected to draw near to Jehovah. This judgment is con- 
firmed by the recurrence of four as the number of 
pieces additional to the dress of the ordinary priests 
whkh the head of the order was required to wear in the 
performance of official duty. The costume common to 
all members of the order included drawers, tunic, girdle, 
and bonnet ; the high-priest was required to wear in 
addition the robe of the ephod, the ephod, the breast- 
plate, and the crown or plate of gold on his cap, the cap 
itself differing in shape from those of his subordinates. 
Adherence to these appointments of the law was 
esteemed so important in the ritualistic period of the 
Jewish church, that the Talmud repeats to the six-hun- 
dredth time, "The garments of the high-priest are 
eight," 1 often mentions four as the number belonging 
to a priest of ordinary rank, maintains that any sacer- 
dotal act would be invalid if the person officiating 
wore a greater or less number of garments than was 
appointed, and pronounces how large a bandage a priest 
might wear on a wounded finger without infringing the 
law. These traditions, however worthless in other 
respects, prove that, while the ordinary sacerdotal cos- 
tume consisted of four separate pieces, the high-priest 
was required to wear four others in addition. The 
numerical signature of the tabernacle was thus im- 
pressed on the official garments of its priesthood. 

The garments of the priests of ordinary rank were 
all of pure white except the girdle. The drawers, the 
coat, and the bonnet, were of shesh, bleached, but not 
dyed. White raiment was, as we have seen, emblematic 
of ethical purity. It was "the righteousness of the 

1 Braun : Vestitus Sacerdotum Hebraorum, Liber I. p. 25. 



INTERPRETATION OF THE PRIESTHOOD. 327 

saints." As worn by the priest, it signified that those who 
were admitted to intimacy with the Holy One of Israel 
must be pure in heart and life. Several passages are to 
be found in the Apocalypse in which those who have been 
redeemed with the blood of the Lamb, and received to 
the immediate presence of God, are described as 
apparelled in white. In one of the visions, John sees a 
great multitude which no man could number standing 
before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white 
robes, and is informed that these have made their robes 
white in the blood of the Lamb, and for this reason are 
before the throne of God, and serve him day and night 
in his temple. His informant adds still further, "He 
that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them." In 
this symbolic description of the blessedness of those who 
are purified from sin through the blood of Christ, it is 
easy to recognise the symbols of Mosaism. These people 
among whom God dwells, and by whom he is served in 
his temple, correspond to the Hebrew priests. In both 
cases the white color of their apparel is" a symbol of 
holiness. 

The material also contributed something to the signifi- 
cance of the dress. The garments must all be of linen ; 
and in the vision of Ezekiel the directions given for 
the official raiment of the priests add to the requirement 
of linen the express prohibition of any thing woollen. 
The reason of the requirement lies, doubtless, in the 
greater cleanliness possible in a warm climate to one 
whose garments are exclusively of this material. Indeed- 
the passage in Ezekiel referred to above, mentions the 
avoidance of sweat as the end to be secured by wearing 
linen instead of woollen. The material was suggestive 



328 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



first of outward, and therefore, secondarily, of inward 
purity. 

Not only was the costume of a priest significant in its 
material, its color, and the number of its pieces, but 
each of the four garments of which it was composed 
contributed an element peculiar to itself. 

The coat, or tunic, was first in importance, as it was in 
size. Reaching from the neck to the ankles, it was 
nearly coincident, as a covering of the person, with the 
whole costume ; so that the other three garments were 
supplements to this, rather than its equals. Its import, 
as might be expected, is also nearly the same as that of 
the whole dress. As the entire costume of four pieces, 
by means of its material and its dominant color, was sug- 
gestive of holiness, so was the coat in particular, as it 
invested the person from the neck to the ankles with 
linen white and shining as light. Moreover, this gar- 
ment was woven in one piece to represent, by this sort 
of integrity, moral wholeness or holiness. To rend his 
garment was a sign that one was inwardly torn ; and, 
on the other hand, a coat which was whole was symbolic 
of inward wholeness. Such a garment was a token that 
the heart of the wearer was not rent with violent passion. 
This symbolism was carried so far as to exclude the art 
of the tailor at least from new garments. 1 The Hebrew 
employed an artist not to cut cloth into pieces to be 
sewed together, but to weave a coat without seam ; and 

1 The Greeks applied to a tailor the same word, anecTTjc, as to a physician, 
uiiEGTTjp, from taceoficu, to heal, merely changing the termination ; as if the art com- 
menced with healing or making whole old garments. The Latin word for tailor, 
sartor, is also from a verb, sarcire, signifying to mend. See Liddell and Scott's 
Greek Lex., 'and Andrews' Latin Lex.; also Braun, Vestitus Sac. II eb. Liber 1. 
p. 258. 



Fig. 32. 
SACERDOTAL TUNIC. 



Fig. 33. 

LOOM FOR WEAVING SEAMLESS TUNICS. 



INTERPRETATION OF THE PRIESTHOOD. 329 

the symbolic significance of rending it resulted from this 
peculiarity. Tunics without seam were exclusively used 
in the early centuries of Hebrew history, and had not 
disappeared at the commencement of the Christian era, 
since our Lord himself wore such a garment. 1 Braun 
records that he had in his possession two tunics of this 
kind, and had seen several others, all brought in his day 
from the East Indies. 2 The passion most frequently 
symbolized by rending the garments was grief occasioned 
either by calamity or sin ; but heart-rending grief in one 
who had been set apart from common life to the service 
of God was incongruous with his holy calling. Hence 
the high-priest was expressly forbidden to rend his 
clothes on account of any bereavement ; and such a 
demonstration of mourning was allowed to an ordinary 
priest only when he had been bereaved of his nearest 
kinsmen. Such legislation indicates how important it 
might be, among a people conversant with symbolism of 
this kind, that the principal official garment of the 
sacerdotal order should be without rent or seam. 

The tunic of the priest was not only without seam, 
but so woven as to exhibit checks like the pattern called 
damask; for such is the meaning of the descriptive 
adjective which the English translators incorrectly 
regarded as equivalent to broidered. The coat was 
therefore covered throughout with four-sided figures of 
small size. Bahr thinks that these were symbols of like 
import with the precious stones in the breastplate of 

1 John xix. 23. 

2 Braun : Vestitus Sac. Heb. Liber I. p. 278. He had before taken the trouble 
to have a loom constructed, and a seamless tunic woven, to demonstrate the possi- 
bility of producing such a garment by the art of the weaver. His loom, and the 
tunic woven in it, are shown in figures, 33 and 34. 

28* 



33 o SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



the high-priest ; as if every member of the sacerdotal 
family bore on his person visible signs that as a priest 
•he was the representative of the tribes of Israel, these 
symbols designedly having, in the case of the subordinate 
priests, only a reflection of the glory and beauty of those 
which distinguished the head of the order. If there 
had been just twelve of these quadrangular figures in 
the sacerdotal tunic, we might have had reason to believe 
that they were a symbol of like import with the jewels 
of the breastplate, whose arrangements in checks is 
indicated in the original by the same word ; but the 
absence of the number twelve leaves the matter involved 
in uncertainty. Whatever this pattern may signify, it is 
found on the tunics of Assyrian kings. The study of 
Assyriology may therefore yet reveal its import. 1 

1 In connection with the figure of the Assyrian king (fig. 35), showing the tashbehtz 
or checkered pattern of his tunic, the following passage from Layard (Nineveh and 
its Remains, vol. ii. p. 140) is worthy of attention for its bearing on the whole subject 
under discussion, as well as for its mention of the embroideries on the robes of the 
king. " The intimate connection between the public and private life of the 
Assyrians and their religion is abundantly proved by the sculptures described in 
the previous pages. As amongst most Eastern nations, not only all public and 
social duties, but even the commonest forms and customs, appear to have been more 
or less influenced by religion, or to have been looked upon as typical. The resi- 
dence of the king, as I have observed, was probably at the same time the temple ; 
and that he himself was either supposed to be invested with divine attributes, or was 
looked upon as a type of the supreme Deity, is shown by the sculptures. The 
winged figures, even that with the head of the eagle, minister to him. AH his acts, 
whether in war or peace, appear to have been connected with the national religion, 
and were believed to be under the special protection and superintendence of the 
Deity. When he is represented in battle, the winged figure in the circle hovers 
above his head, bends the bow against his enemies, or assumes his attitude of 
triumph. His contests with the lion and other formidable animals not only show 
his power and skill, but typify at the same time his superior strength and wisdom. 
Whether he has overcome his enemies, or the wild beasts, he pours out a libation 
from the sacred cup, attended by his courtiers and by the winged figures. The 
embroideries upon his robes, and upon those of his attendants, have all mythic 
meaning." 



Fig. 34. 

TUNIC WITHOUT SEAM, WOVEN IN THE SIXTEENTH 
CENTURY. 




Fig. 35. 
ASSYRIAN KING. 



INTERPRETATION OF THE PRIESTHOOD. 331 



A girdle of some kind was in ancient time, as it is 
even now, essential to the completeness of an Oriental 
costume. The tunic of a laborer was confined with a 
plain band of leather, such as John the Baptist was girt 
with ; but the girdle was sometimes of costly material, 
and ornamented with works of art indicative of wonderful 
skill and patience. This part of the ancient costume by 
means of diversity in its material, size, shape, and 
ornamentation, was easily made a badge of office. The 
girdle of the soldier, sustaining the weight of weapons, 
was not of the same fashion as the emblematic sash 
with which the minister of religion girt himself for the 
rites of worship. The priests of Egypt were distin- 
guished among themselves by girdles of diverse patterns, 
indicating, perhaps, that they belonged to different deities, 
or were of unequal rank. The girdle of the Hebrew 
priest seems to have been, more than any other article of 
his attire, an official badge. According to the traditional 
law of the Hebrews, the priest must remove his girdle 
when he ceased to officiate, but might, if more conven- 
ient, continue to wear the other official garments through 
the clay. 1 How the girdle of the priest symbolized his 
office as an attache of the tabernacle, is evident when we 
consider its peculiar ornamentation. Like the other 
garments, it was of white linen ; but, unlike them, it was 
interwoven with threads of blue, purple, and crimson. 
The four colors of the tabernacle signified that the 
wearer belonged to the institution. This badge of office 
certified that he had a right to enter the habitation 
where these significant colors were dominant. 

The Arab wears on his head a cap similar to the 

1 Braun: Ves. Sac. Heb., Liber II. pp. 385, 401, 674. 



332 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



Turkish fez, which he calls a tarbusJu The Bedouin 
spreads over it a handkerchief folded so that three of 
the four corners hang down on the back and shoul- 
ders, and binds it in place with a twisted rope of goat's 
hair or camel's hair reaching around his head. The 
Syrian Arab, if he wishes any addition to his tarbush, 
ties a handkerchief over it, or winds around it a shawl of 
wool, silk, or cotton, so as to form a turban. The Orien- 
tal turban has exhibited both in modern time, and in the 
remotest antiquity, a great variety of form, material, and 
color. By means of this diversity it has served to dis- 
tinguish between men of different nations, and of differ- 
ent classes in the same nation. The difference between 
the head-dress of the Hebrew high-priest, and those 
appointed for his subordinates, was doubtless designed to 
express a difference of rank, while both patterns were 
badges of honor. The specifications given to Moses 
direct him to make the bonnets of the subordinate 
priests for glory and for beauty in the same terms in 
which he is required to make the whole costume for 
glory and for beauty. The repetition of this clause in 
reference to the bonnets, and only in reference to them, 
implies that they especially were designed for ornament 
and honor. As an ancient Assyrian king was distin- 
guished by a head-dress of peculiar shape and ornamen- 
tation, as a descendant of Mohammed is known by the 
color of his turban, so the dignity of the Hebrew priest, 
as an attendant on Jehovah in his holy habitation, was 
symbolized by a turban peculiar to his order in its 
material, its color, and perhaps its shape. 

The priests must wear drawers while officiating, to 
cover their nakedness ; and neglect to do so was to be 



HINDOSTANEE TURBANS, INDICATING THE RANK 

WEARERS. 




Fig. 37. 
ROBE OF THE EPHOD. 



INTERPRETATION OF THE PRIESTHOOD. 333 



punished with death, even if no exposure of the person 
resulted. The covering was therefore symbolic. It was 
a removal from the significant tableau in which the 
priest was engaged, of those parts of his person which, 
as excretory, were especially representative of defile- 
ment. 

The significance of the costume of the Hebrew priest 
cannot be fully seen by one who overlooks the fact that 
it left his feet uncovered. An Oriental does not wear a 
shoe or sandal for protection from cold, but from filth ; 
and lays aside at least the outermost covering of his feet 
when he enters a house because he will not need such 
protection in such a place, and because his shoe might 
bring filth into the house. This etiquette is rigidly 
observed in Mohammedan countries in regard to 
mosques, which it would be sacrilegious to enter without 
removing the shoes. We are to understand, therefore, 
that the Hebrew priests were required to be barefooted 
when they were in the tabernacle, because any covering 
of the feet would have suggested that one might have 
brought in defilement from without, or was liable to 
acquire it while occupied in the holy place. 

The costume of the high-priest consisted of the four 
pieces worn by his subordinates, and of four others pecu- 
liar to him as the head of the order. 

Over the tunic he wore the robe of the ephod, the 
significance of which resulted from its blue color and 
the ornamental fringe which hung from its border at the 
bottom. To understand the meaning of this fringe, let 
us look at an ordinance which required every Hebrew to 
wear a fringe, and the reason assigned for such a law. 
« Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that 



334 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACIE. 



they make them fringes in the borders of their garments 
throughout their generations, and that they put upon 
the fringe of the borders a ribbon of blue: and it shall 
be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and 
remember all the commandments of Jehovah, and do 
them." 1 The ornaments were intended to remind the 
wearer of the commandments of Jehovah, and were con- 
nected with his garment, whatever its color, by a cord 
or ribbon of blue to signify the heavenly origin of that 
which he was to keep in remembrance. Have we not, 
then, reason to believe that the ornamental fringe at the 
bottom of the robe of the ephod was related in its 
design and significance to the fringe which every He- 
brew was required to wear on his upper garment, 2 and 
that the robe was throughout of blue for the same rea- 
son that a blue ribbon or cord must connect the mantle 
of the layman with its fringe ? But this fringe, in the 
case of the high-priest, consisted of tassels in the shape 
of pomegranates, alternated with little golden bells. 
That the pomegranate, when employed in Hebrew sym- 
bolism, represented the law of Jehovah, which included 
in itself a multitude of particular commands and prohi- 
bitions as the fruit enclosed its thousands of seeds, 
appears from the version which the Chaldee paraphrast 
gives of two passages in the Song of Solomon. He 
translates, "Thy youth are filled with the command- 
ments like pomegranates," 3 where our version is, "Thy 

1 Num. xv. 38, '39. 

2 It was perhaps a "border" such as this law required which communicated 
the healing power of our Lord to those who touched it. Their expectation of a 
cure was founded on that remembrance and obedience which the border signified. 
The Pharisees enlarged these borders to an extraordinary size to signify that they 
excelled in holy obedience (Matt, xxiii. 5). 

3 Buxtorf, Lex. Talm. JD*1, p. 2265. 



Fig. 3 S 

HIGH-PRIEST IN ROBE OF THE EPHOD. 




Fig. 39. 
EPHOD. 



INTERPRETATION OP THE PRIESTHOOD. 335 

plants are a garden of pomegranates ; " and " They are 
full of good works like pomegranates/' 1 instead of 
"The pomegranates budded." The Talmud also has 
the phrase, They are full of the commandments as a 
pomegranate." 2 If, then, the pomegranates on the robe 
of the ephod symbolized the law in its totality as inclu- 
ding every specific requirement, it is at least a plausible 
conjecture that the bells with which they alternated sig- 
nified that the high-priest, or rather the covenant people 
whom he represented, were not only to remember the 
commandments of Jehovah, but by obeying to proclaim 
them. So far as they remembered and obeyed it, the 
word of the Lord sounded out from them. 

The specifications for the ephod make its shoulder- 
pieces so prominent that the Greek and Latin versions 
give it names in those languages which characterize it as 
a shoulder-garment. 3 But the shoulder as the seat of 
strength was, in the early times when the strongest 
ruled, the seat of authority, and the most appropriate 
position for an emblem of government. Hence the key 
of the house of David was to be laid on the shoulder of 
Eliakim, to show that he superseded Shebna as superin- 
tendent of the royal household. 4 According to the same 
manner of speaking, it is said of Messiah, " The govern- 
ment shall be upon his shoulder." 5 There is, perhaps, a 
remnant of this ancient symbolism in the epaulet, as a 
badge of command in an army. We infer, from its 
peculiarity as a shoulder-garment, that the ephod was a 
symbol of rank ; and, from the materials of which it was 
made, that it invested the wearer as a badge of royalty. 



1 Buxtorf, Lex. Talm. JD"1, p. 2265. 

3 LXX. knufiLC ; Vulgate, superhumerale. 



2 Ibid. 

4 Isa. xxii. 21, 22. 5 Isa. ix. 6. 



336 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

This garment was provided for the high-priest as the 
representative of the holy nation, that the jewels on its 
shoulders, and the threads of beaten gold woven into it 
throughout, might signify that they were kings as well 
as priests. The four sacred colors in the ephod were 
the livery of the tabernacle, marking the wearer as an 
inmate of the house ; but the jewels and the gold indi- 
cated that he was a friend rather than a servant of the 
King. A high rank is thus accorded and sealed to 
the true Israel. They are not only priests, but a royal 
priesthood. They draw near to God as members of his 
household. They are permitted to call him Father, and 
regard themselves as his sons. The girdle of the ephod 
concurred with its jewelled shoulder-pieces and its gold, 
to set forth the dignity of the high-priest, and of the sons 
of God in whose place he stood. As we have already 
had occasion to remark, the girdle often became, by some 
peculiarity in its fashion, a badge of rank ; and here, by 
its identity with the ephod in material and workmanship, 
it assisted to distinguish the wearer. The two jewels 
on the shoulders of the ephod, engraven with the names 
of the twelve tribes, were " stones of memorial unto the 
children of Israel, " 1 that it might never be forgotten 
that the priest was the proxy of the people, and that the 
royal dignity with which he was clothed belonged to 
them. 

The breastplate of judgment was closely connected 
in significance with the ephod, indicating that the wearer 
was a ruler endowed with wisdom for the decision of 
important questions relating to the public welfare. He 
wore it on his heart because the heart was regarded as 

1 Exod. xxviii. 12. 




Fig, 40. 
BREASTPLATE. 



Fig. 41. 

EPHOD, WITH BREASTPLATE ATTACHED. 



INTERPRETATION OF THE PRIESTHOOD. 337 

the seat of wisdom. When Solomon came to the throne, 
he asked God to give him an understanding heart to 
judge his people, and received the reply, " Lo, I have 
given thee a wise and an understanding heart." 
Whether, therefore, the ephod a*nd breastplate are viewed 
as jointly one badge, or as separate badges, the latter 
symbolized wisdom for judging as the former strength 
for execution. Made in the form of a bag, it contained 
something called the Urim and Thummim} design ed^ 
perhaps, as a pledge that when he went, with the breast- 
plate on his heart, to inquire of Jehovah how to decide 
any question submitted to his decision, he should find 
the matter illuminated with a perfect light, and be able 
to decide with an infallible wisdom. The names of the 
twelve sons of Jacob, graven on the jewels of the breast- 
plate for a memorial, were designed to keep in remem- 
brance that the true Israel occupied the position in the 
matters symbolized by the tabernacle which the high- 
priest filled in the symbolic institution. The two 
memorials, one on the shoulder and one on the heart, 
were pledges that those who are permitted to draw near 
to God in spirit and in truth are kings, as well as priests, 
and shall not only be admitted to see his face, but be 
employed in ruling and judging. 2 

The head-dress of the high-priest was distinguished 
from that of his subordinates not only by its shape, but 
by its plate of gold bearing the inscription Holiness to 
Jehovah. This plate, peculiar to him as the head of the 

1 The words Urim and Thummim, literally lights and perfections, probably 
signify, by hendiadys, perfect light ; but we can only conjecture what the emblem 
so called was, and how it was connected with other parts of the symbolic apparatus. 
See Smith's Bible Dictionary, art. Urim and Thummim. 

2 Rev. v. 10. 

29 



338 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

priesthood, and of the nation as a kingdom of priests, 
was another badge of rank, and equivalent in meaning to 
a crown. 1 It is worthy of notice that Assyrian kings 
also wore plates on the forefront of their turbans, fas- 
tened, like that of the Hebrew high-priest, by a ribbon 
tied behind. 2 The inscription, peculiarly important from 
its position on the forehead, where, according to the 
custom not only of the Hebrews, 3 but of other Oriental 
nations, religious symbols were worn, proclaimed that 
the high-priest through his election, his physical fault- 
lessness, his separation from common life, his investment 
with the robes of office, and his consecration, was so 
holy that he might not only approach Jehovah, but 
could take away the sins of his people. For it is said 
of this crown, " It shall be upon Aaron's forehead, that 
Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things, which 
the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts ; 
and it shall be always upon his forehead, that they may be 
accepted before Jehovah." 4 The inscription indicated 
such holiness in the mediator as would not only cancel 
the defects of the worshippers, but procure for them 
positive favor on his account. Their iniquity was 
taken away; and they were accounted holy because 
their representative was holy. The typical element 
enters so largely into the symbolism of the high- 
priest, that it has been difficult to proceed as ^ far 
as we have without including it in our exposition; 
and it is impossible satisfactorily to interpret the 

1 Exod. xxix. 6, xxxix. 30 ; Lev. viii. 9. 

2 See fig. 45- ... 

s Ezek. ix. 4 ; Rev. vii. 3, ix. 4, xiii. 16, xiv. 1-9, xvii. 5, xx. 4, xxn. 4. 
For an Egyptian example, see Wilkinson, Second Series, vol. i. p. 348. 
4 Exod. xxviii. 38. 



Fig. 42. 
TURBAN OF A 
SUBORDINATE PRIEST. 



Fig. 43- 
TURBAN OF THE 
HIGH-PRIEST. 




Fig. 44. 
GOLDEN CROWN. 




Fig. 45- 

HEAD OF AN ASSYRIAN KING WITH A CROWN ON THE 
FOREHEAD. 




Fig. 46. 



HIGH-PRIEST IN HIS ORDINARY COSTUME. 



INTERPRETATION OF THE PRIESTHOOD. 339 



crown and its inscription, without pointing forward 
through the ages to the true priest of whom Aaron was 
a prophetic symbol. But, as we purpose to devote a 
chapter to those symbols of the tabernacle which were 
prophetic, we pass on to observe that there was signifi- 
cance in the color of the ribbons with which the crown 
was fastened to the head-dress. They were blue, to 
denote that this holiness was not of earthly and human, 
but of heavenly and divine origin. 

The garments in which the h-igh-priest officiated on 
the day of atonement should not be confounded with the 
costume of a subordinate priest, for they must be exclu- 
sively white ; whereas, the girdles of the sons of Aaron, 
like that with which Aaron himself was ordinarily girt 
immediately over his tunic, were ornamented with the 
four sacred colors. The garments of gold, as the ordi- 
nary costume of the high-priest was sometimes styled, 
were laid aside for the moment to give greater promi- 
nence to the idea of purity as suggested by whiteness. 
Coming* nearer to Jehovah than at any other time during 
the year, the representative of Israel wore only white 
garments, to show forth as impressively as possible the 
holiness of the Being whom he approached. 1 

Of the ceremonies of consecration, the washing of 
the priests evidently signified the removal of spiritual 
uncleanness, the investment with the official costume 
was equivalent to an investiture with the office, and the 

1 It is a mistake to regard the garments which the high-priest wore on the day 
of atonement, as a penitential costume. White was significant of joy, rather 
than of grief, being worn on festive occasions ; and was on that account more 
appropriate for holiness, or ethical health, which is necessarily accompanied with 
enjoyment. 



SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



unction they received indicated that they were divinely 
enlivened and refreshed in spirit for the work to which 
they were separated. The consecrating oil which was 
sprinkled on Aaron and his garments, and on his sons 
and their garments, was also poured on the head of 
Aaron till it ran down on his beard, to show that as 
the chief of the order " he needed and would receive the 
Spirit of God in richest fulness." 1 

The threefold sacrifice which followed consisted of 
a sin-offering to take away the sin of the candidates, a 
holocaust to show that they surrendered themselves to 
Jehovah, and a peace-offering ; the last being made, by 
some peculiarities in its ritual, a sacrifice of consecration 
to the office. There being as yet no priests duly inducted 
into office, Moses himself, as the mediator of the covenant, 
officiated in the sacrifices, following in general the 
established ritual, but with such variations as the pecu- 
liarities of the case demanded. The blood of the sin- 
offering was not carried within the habitation, because 
the persons purified were not yet priests, but was sprin- 
kled on the altar as in the expiation of a private person ; 
and the flesh of it could not be eaten by Moses, because 
he was not a consecrated priest, but must be burned 
without the camp. The burnt-offering seems to have 
followed the ritual in all points. The ordinary ritual of 
the peace-offering gave place to ceremonies of consecra- 
tion specially adapted to symbolize sacerdotal preroga- 
tives and functions. Some of the blood was applied to 
an ear, a thumb, and a great toe of each candidate ; and 
he was caused to heave the heave-shoulder, and wave the 
wave-breast, to show that in the office to which he was 

l Kurtz : Sacrificial "Worship of the Old Testament, p. 331. 




Fig. 47. 

HIGH-PRIEST IN COSTUME OF THE DAY OF ATONEMENT, 



INTERPRETATION OF THE PRIESTHOOD. 341 

consecrated he would be authorized and required thus to 
apply the blood of expiation, and thus to cause the 
worshippers for whom he officiated to heave the heave- 
shoulder, and to wave the wave-breast, of their peace- 
offerings, before Jehovah. The flesh was divided into 
two portions, like the flesh of any peace-offering ; one 
being consumed on the altar, and the other eaten by 
Aaron and his sons, to signify the fellowship between 
the Holy One whom the altar represented, and those 
whom he had accepted as the members of his household, 
and the officers of his holy habitation. 

It was not without meaning that these ceremonies of 
consecration were repeated daily for seven days; the 
repetitions, and the number which limited them, both 
concurring with all the other elements in the represen- 
tation to indicate that the priesthood was an office of 
high honor and privilege. As such it was adapted to 
symbolize the glory and blessedness of those who draw 
near to God in spirit and in truth. 
29* 



CHAPTER XIII. 

INTERPRETATION OF THE SACRIFICES OF THE 
TABERNACLE. 

Religious feeling naturally expresses itself in offer- 
ings as well as in prayer. Man feels ■ his dependence, 
and is impelled to acknowledge it by tributary gifts, as 
well as in verbal utterance. He is grateful for what he 
has received, and presents a thank-offering. He is 
conscious of guilt, and seeks to propitiate with a present. 
The question whether offerings to God were first 
brought to him by his own appointment, or were 
prompted by man's religious instinct, is of no practical 
importance ; since, if they originated in the yearning of 
the human heart after God, they were at once approved 
by him, and, if first enjoined by him, it was because the 
heart of man would naturally express itself by such 
means. If not of divine institution, they must have 
been very early invented, for they were in use in the 
family of Adam even before the birth of his youngest 
child. Moreover, Cain and Abel seem to bring their 
offerings to Jehovah not as if inaugurating a new mode of 
worship, but as if in conformity with a custom already 
established. Originating thus early, the custom of 
worshipping by means of offerings remained in vogue 
through the antediluvian period, and, when the descend- 

34 2 



INTERPRETATION OF THE SACRIFICES. 343 



ants of Noah were dispersed, was preserved by all 
branches of the family. The universality of the custom 
among the ancient nations proves that, whether of 
divine or human origin, it was in accord with the nature 
of man. 

The cloud of obscurity, which rests on the beginning 
of worship by means of offerings, envelops also the origin 
of diversity in the substance of which they consisted, and 
in the meaning they were intended to convey. The 
offerings of Cain and Abel being of different material, it 
has been conjectured that Cain purposely avoided the 
expression of such opinions and feelings as were sym- 
bolized in the bleeding sacrifice of his brother. But as 
these offerings are not introduced into the sacred history 
on their own account, but only incidentally mentioned as 
occasioning the fratricide which followed, the narrative 
is too brief and general in its statement to justify the 
reception of such a hypothesis as the only possible 
explanation of the difference which the eye of Jehovah 
discovered in the two worshippers. The altar-worship 
of Abraham and Jacob, though frequently mentioned, is 
not described with sufficient amplification to exhibit to 
the reader the specific ideas it expressed. Some of the 
distinctions between one offering and another observable 
in the worship of the tabernacle may have obtained 
before the time of Moses, and, if altar-worship was first 
practised by divine direction, may have been as ancient 
as sacrifice itself. No such distinctions, however, are 
apparent to the reader of the Pentateuch till he reaches 
the account of the exodus. That event originated a 
peculiar species of sacrifice, which became an institution. 
We shall have occasion to interpret it when we speak of 



344 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

the annual festival of the passover. The law afterward 
given at Sinai enumerated several species of offerings, 
different in name, in material, in the accompanying cere- 
monies, and in the ideas they were intended to exhibit. 
The symbolism of these offerings we have now to 
interpret. 

There is no evidence that the sacrifice described by 
Moses under the name of sin-offering is of more ancient 
date than the law of Sinai, or that there was any offering 
in the patriarchal period whose chief element was expia- 
tory. Probably all bleeding sacrifices contained the idea 
of expiation ; but the animals brought to the altar by 
Noah were burnt-offerings, symbolizing self-surrender or 
allegiance in general, rather than expiation in particular. 
In no other case prior to the time of Moses is a sacrifice 
designated by a specific name ; so that, while it is not 
absolutely certain that none of them were primarily and 
chiefly sin-offerings, it seems probable that a sacrifice of 
expiation was unknown before the time of Moses except 
as it was included in the sacrifice of broader import in 
which the flesh was consumed on the altar. 

The Hebrew sin-offering has such adaptation to the 
wants of a person subjected to the discipline of the 
comprehensive and exceedingly particular law of Sinai, 
that one can easily believe it was a portion of the same 
system with the law itself, intended to impart the assur- 
ance of salvation where the law had awakened the 
consciousness of guilt. The sacrificial customs which 
the Hebrews had inherited from their ancestors were 
modified in order that, as conscience was quickened to 
more frequent and more lively accusation, they might be 



INTERPRETATION OF THE SACRIFICES. 345 

provided with consolation and encouragement in corre- 
sponding degree. 

The elevation of the expiatory element from the 
subsidiary position it held in patriarchal sacrifices, to be 
the head and front of one species of offering, was also a 
step in the preparation of mankind for the great expiation 
in whicn all sacrifices were to be swallowed up, and cease 
to be offered, as the constellations which relieve the dark- 
ness of night are extinguished by the effulgence of the 
morning sun. Expiation being at first symbolized in 
connection with the profession of allegiance, the law of 
Sinai exalted it to be celebrated by means of a distinct 
sacrifice, and thus erected another waymark on the path 
of life. 

The Mosaic sin-offering being, as the name indicates, 
chiefly expiatory, we have first to define the expiation it 
was intended to effect. It must be remembered, how- 
ever, that the idea prominent in this species of sacrifice 
was present in all the bloody sacrifices of the tabernacle. 
This appears from the reason assigned for the law forbid- 
ding the Hebrew to eat blood. The reason is given in 
these words : " For the life of the flesh is in the blood : 
and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an 
atonement for your souls : for it is the blood that maketh 
an atonement [for] with the soul." 1 Blood was not to 
be eaten because, when applied to the altar, it expiated 
sin with the soul or life of the animal slain. But blood 
being thus applied to the altar in the ceremonial of the 
sin-offering, the trespass-offering, the burnt-offering, and 
the peace-offering severally, each of them must have 

1 Lev. xvii. 11. The preposition 2 in the last clause is spoken of the instru- 
ment. See note on p. 254. 



346 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

included the idea of expiation, though it was more 
prominent in the first and second than in the third and 
fourth. 

Expiation, or as the English version expresses it, 
atonement, was effected through the sprinkling, by a 
priest, of blood drawn from an animal devoted to death 
by the sinner, and slain by him on the north side of the 
altar in the court of the tabernacle. In every case 
where an animal was offered on the altar, some of its 
blood was sprinkled to make an atonement. This is 
expressly prescribed in the statutes concerning the differ- 
ent species of sacrifice, except in the case of the peace- 
offering ; and there the same ceremony is enjoined, but 
without the clause explanatory of its meaning. What- 
ever else a devout Hebrew wished to see represented by 
means of a bloody sacrifice, his feelings prompted him to 
include the acknowledgment of sin, and the divine assur- 
ance of forgiveness. The law provided, therefore, that, 
when he presented a burnt-offering to signify his self- 
surrender, or a peace-offering as a means of enjoying 
fellowship with God, the ceremonial appropriate to the 
specific design of the sacrifice should be preceded by a 
sign, which was both symbolic and sacramental, that the 
sins of the worshipper were obliterated, and that he was 
consequently delivered from his liability to die as a 
transgressor. This sign consisted in the act of the 
priest bringing near to Jehovah the sacrificial blood, 
which, as the victim was the proxy of the worshipper, 
symbolized the life of the latter. By passing through in 
his stead the death to which he was liable on account of 
sin, the life or soul of the animal, which was in its blood, 
had borne or taken away his sins ; and, being still his 



INTERPRETATION OF THE SACRIFICES. 347 



proxy, was now brought by the priest to the place where 
Jehovah met his people, to show that the soul whose 
place the victim had assumed was entitled to live, and 
to draw near to the living God, as if righteous. 

Obviously, such a transaction cannot really take away 
sin. Nothing can change the nature of a wicked act so 
that he who committed it ceases to be blameworthy for 
what he has done. A symbolic transaction with the 
blood of bulls and goats cannot even cancel the demand 
of justice that the transgression of law shall be punished. 
But such a transaction may represent, by means of its 
symbols, and in this case was appointed to represent, 
that the sinner was released from punishment, and treated 
as if righteous, on account of some substitution, not 
symbolic, but real and efficient, to which this transaction 
stands related as a shadow does to the substance inter- 
cepting the light. What means the Hebrew had of dis- 
covering that the true expiation was a future, and not a past 
event, we have to consider not in the present stage of 
our discussion, but further on when we take up the sub- 
ject of types. Definite information in regard to the real 
and efficient substitution symbolized by the ceremonial 
of a sacrifice was not necessary to the expiation of his 
sin, or to his confidence that he was accepted and treated 
* as if righteous. That which was propounded to his 
faith was the symbol, and not the Lamb of God to 
which in our day sinners are invited to look. Having 
faith in the symbol as a symbol, he was justified, that is, 
accepted and treated as if he were a just person, on the 
ground that a substitute had been provided for him by 
God, which could really take away sin ; and the symbol 
not only set forth this fact for his comfort, but included 



348 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



an appointed seal that he, personally, was a partaker in 
the redemption thus provided. 

The symbolic expiation culminated in the sprinkling 
of blood by the priest ; but it by no means follows that 
this one act included all that was essential to the 
ceremony. There were certain species of animals 
appointed to the altar, to the exclusion of all others ; and 
the blood must come from one of the class thus set 
apart for sacrifice. It must be drawn from a victim 
devoted to the purpose by the transgressor; an animal 
belonging to him, and not to another person. The 
sinner himself must slaughter the animal, and do it on 
the north side of the altar. These preliminaries were 
as essential to an expiation as the act of the priest 
bringing the blood near to God. The sprinkling of the 
blood, in which the expiation culminated, was a sacra- 
mental sign, assuring the sacrificer that his sin was taken 
away ; but it was only a part of the symbolic expiation. 

In analyzing the process by which the symbolic 
expiation was effected, we have attained to a fuller and 
more nearly perfect conception of that which the process 
effected than we could have reached by the study of 
Hebrew etymology. The word translated make an 
atonement means, primarily, to cover. There can be 
no doubt that the translation is substantially correct ; 
but the process by which a word primarily meaning to 
cover came to be of equivalent import with the cere- 
monial commencing in the presentation of an animal 
before the altar, and ending in the sprinkling of its 
blood by the priest, is lost, and can be only conjecturally 
recovered. To expiate is to cover. A symbolic expia- 
tion by means of a sacrifice was a pantomimic represen- 



INTERPRETATION OF THE SACRIFICES. 349 



tation assuring the sacrificer that his sin was covered, 
and that consequently he would be treated as if he had 
not sinned. 

The first step in the ceremonial of the sin-offering 
was the presentation by the transgressor, of the animal 
which was to die in his stead. According to his higher 
or lower position in the theocracy, and the comparative 
importance of his sin resulting from his relative standing, 
he brought a bullock, a male kid, or a female lamb or 
kid. A bullock marked the higher position of a priest, 
and the greater importance of his sin. A kid, an animal 
of less value than a bullock, was required of a ruler ; but 
it must be of the male sex to mark the sin as an event 
of greater moment than if the transgressor were not 
thus distinguished. A female kid or lamb was the 
sin-offering appointed for one of the common people. 
When the sacrifice was for a national sin, the victim was 
the same as if a priest needed expiation. 

The sacrificer, having brought an animal of the kind 
appointed for a person of his rank to the side of the 
altar, put his hand with solemn formality on its head. 
To comprehend this imposition of the hand, one must 
examine other instances in which the hand was similarly 
employed. It was so used in blessing, 1 in imparting 
the Holy Spirit, 2 in imparting the prerogatives of an 
office or the qualifications for it, 3 in performing miracu- 
lous cures, 4 and in sentencing a criminal to execution. 5 
Whatever specific difference of meaning there may have 
been in the ceremony as employed for these different 

1 Gen. xlviii. 13, 14 ; Mark x. 16. 2 Actsviii. 17-19. 

3 Num. viii. 10, xxvii. 18 et seq. ; Deut. xxxiv. 9 ; Acts vi. 6 ; 1 Tim. iv. 14, v. 22. 

4 Matt. ix. 18 ; Mark vi. 5 ; Luke xiii. 13 ; Acts ix. 12, 17. 

5 Lev. xxiv. 14. 

3° 



350 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



specific purposes, it must have had a generic significance 
common to all instances in which it was appropriate. 
But imparting or giving to the person on whom the 
hand is laid is an idea common to the above-cited 
specifications. This appears at first sight in regard to 
all the cases except that of condemning to die, and 
appears also in that case as soon as we conceive of the 
persons imposing their hands as imparting condemna- 
tion. Remote as such a mode of conception may be 
from our habits of thought, there is no more incongruity 
in the impartation of a curse by such a symbolic act 
than of a blessing. Doubtless, then, the ceremony 
under consideration signified in all cases that the person 
who laid his hand on another imparted something, the 
spectator being dependent on the peculiarities of the 
case, or an accompanying explanation, for his knowledge 
of what was conveyed. When, therefore, the sacrificer 
laid his hand on the head of the animal which was to 
expiate his sin by dying in his stead, it is most natural 
to understand that he meant to impart to the animal the 
power to be his representative in the transaction about 
to take place. 1 

The slaughtering of the animal was the consummation 
of the vicarious death to which it had been appointed by 
the imposition of hands. The personal agency of the 
sacrificer, in taking the life of his substitute, gave 
emphasis to his acknowledgment of ill-desert, and his 
consent to the substitution. The north side of the altar, 

1 Some have seen in this act the impartation of sin ; but such an interpretation 
is unnatural, because sin cannot be imparted. The turpitude of sin adheres to him 
who sinned ; and the transfer of it to another is as impossible as the transfer of 
personal identity. The interpretation we have given accords well with the letter 
of the statute in Lev. i. 4. 



INTERPRETATION OF THE SACRIFICES. 351 

where the animal was put to death, connected the event 
with the region which the ancients feared as the abode 
of darkness, gloom, and calamity. 

The sprinkling of the blood, in which was the life of 
the innocent proxy, covered the soul of the sinful but 
penitent principal, so that Jehovah could receive him as 
if innocent. The two had exchanged places, but not 
characters. The animal had suffered death as if guilty : 
the sinner might draw near to God as if sinless. In this 
covering of one soul with another soul, 1 the atonement 
consisted ; and the sprinkling of the blood in the places 
where God manifested his presence at once completed 
the symbolic representation, and afforded a sacramental 
seal that a real expiation was accomplished. The soul 
of the proxy was brought into Jehovah's presence by his 
direction, and by his authorized representative, to show 
and to testify that the penitent sinner himself might 
draw near. It is consequently this application of the 
blood to the holy places which is termed making an 
atonement? The vicarious death did not of itself 
expiate ; the acceptance by Jehovah, through his priest, 
of the life thus surrendered, was still necessary. By 
allowing and commanding it to be brought to his imme- 
diate presence, he signified his acceptance of the 
substitution, and his consequent willingness to restore 
to his fellowship the person whose soul had been 
covered. 3 

1 For an explanation of this usage of "soul," see p. 253. 2 Lev. xvii. 11. 

3 Atonement is sometimes spoken of as made for the soul, and sometimes as 
for the sin, of the sacrificer ; but these different modes of expression imply only 
different aspects of the same truth. The soul of the proxy covered the soul, 
or it covered the sin, according to the stand-point from which the subject was 
viewed. 



352 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



This symbolic transaction presupposed another and a 
real expiation which it made available to the sacrificer. 
It was not necessary that he should know how, where, 
or when that expiation was made, or was to be made. 
Faith could leave with God the solution of the question, 
How can sin be forgiven consistently with rectitude ? 
and enable the believer to see, in the reception upon the 
altar of the blood or soul of his proxy, the sacramental 
sign that he himself might approach. It was enough for 
him that Jehovah had said, " I have given the blood to 
you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls ; 
for it is the blood that maketh an atonement with 1 the 
soul" 

There was significance in the application of the blood 
to the particular place it was made to touch. When a 
priest had sinned, the blood of his sin-offering was 
carried within the habitation, where some of it was 
sprinkled before the veil, and some was put on the horns 
of the altar of incense, to indicate that by the expia- 
tion of his sin he was entitled to enter the sanctuary, 
and enjoy that immediate fellowship with God to which 
priests were admitted, as if he had not sinned. When 
the sacrificer was a layman, the blood was put on the 
horns of the great altar in the court, to signify that 
the expiation admitted him to such mediate fellowship as 
Jehovah allowed to the whole congregation of his people. 
In either case, the sin was so covered that the penitent 
was entitled to the privileges he had forfeited. The 
penalty of death which he deserved was remitted, and 
his title to theocratic life was assured to him by a 
sacramental sign. 

1 See note on p. 254. 



INTERPRETATION OF THE SACRIFICES. 353 

Expiation having now been completed by the sprink- 
ling of blood, it remained to dispose of the flesh. The 
flesh of a sin-offering belonged to God as truly as that 
of a holocaust ; but there was not the same necessity 
that all of it should be burned. The entire consumption 
of the burnt-offering represented the unreservedness 
with which the sacrificer gave himself to God, and was 
consequently an important element in the ritual of that 
sacrifice. But in the ritual of the sin-offering it only 
remained, after expiation had been completed by sprink- 
ling the blood, that Jehovah should manifest in the 
disposal of the flesh the feelings with with which he 
regarded the restoration of the penitent. Accordingly by 
receiving a portion on the altar, and giving the remain- 
der to his household for their food, he demonstrated his 
and their joy in that which the sacrifice had effected. 
The sin-offerings were accordingly eaten by the priests 
within the precincts of the tabernacle, their families not 
being allowed to partake with them because the flesh 
was " most holy." It was not only the " bread of God," 
as all sacrifices were, but exceeded a peace-offering in 
holiness ; for not only the wives and children of the 
priests, but the sacrificer and his friends, were allowed to 
partake of the latter, whereas the sin-offering was given 
to the priests to be eaten in the house of God by them 
only as members of his household. The offerer could 
not partake of it; for, by furnishing the blood of atone- 
ment, it had become holy, and its holiness had been 
brought into antithesis with his sinfulness. So impor- 
tant was this exclusion from the feast of the person 
expiated by the sacrifice, that when the sin-offering was 
for a priest, or for the whole congregation, the participa* 

3°* 



SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



tion of the priests with Jehovah was omitted, and the 
whole of the flesh, with the exception of the fat, was 
carried to a clean place outside of the camp, and there 
disposed of by burning. A sinner might never eat of 
the sacrifice by which he was purged from his sins. By 
taking away sin, it had itself become a "most holy 
thing," acquiring rank in holiness above peace-offerings, 
which were classed with "holy things," while a sin- 
offering was "most holy." Its holiness was so great 
that it could be eaten only in the court of the tabernacle, 
and only by the priests ; that a vessel wherein it had been 
cooked, if of earthen-ware, must be broken lest the 
holiness it had acquired by the contact should be con- 
taminated by some subsequent use, or, if of brass, must 
be scoured and rinsed. 1 

The trespass-offering being so similar to the sin- 
offering in its design and ritual, being, indeed, one form 
of the sin-offering, needs no separate elucidation. The 
injury to property having been repaired by the payment 
of the required compensation, a male lamb was sacrificed, 
and its blood sprinkled on the altar in expiation; the 
position of the trespasser in the theocracy not being 
marked, as in other sin-offerings, by a difference in the 
animals required from priests, rulers, and private 
persons, respectively. The blood was applied not to the 
horns or highest parts of the altar, as in the sin-offering 
restrictively so called, but to its sides ; expiation being 
relatively less prominent on account of the reparation 
made by the offender in connection with the sacrifice. 

1 Lev. vi. 25-30. This passage has been strangely misunderstood as it the sin- 
offering defiled the vessels in which it was cooked, when it is expressly said to be 
" most holy." 



INTERPRETATION OF THE SACRIFICES. 



355 



The burnt-offering of Mosaism seems to have been 
the continuation of the bleeding sacrifice of the patriar- 
chal period; the sin-offering and the peace-offering 
growing out from it as the side-branches of a tree from 
the stem. Its ritual commenced with an expiation. 
The sacrificer constituted the victim his proxy by the 
imposition of his hand, and slaughtered it. The priest 
then made atonement for him by sprinkling the blood 
upon the sides of the altar in like manner as in the 
trespass-offering. The way was thus prepared for perform- 
ing acceptably the self -surrender symbolized by giving 
to Jehovah the flesh of the slaughtered animal. The 
representation of atonement properly preceded the out^ 
ward and symbolic consecration, as the real expiation of 
sin was a necessary antecedent to an acceptable offering 
of himself by the worshipper as a spiritual sacrifice. 
The animal for a voluntary burnt-offering might be 
taken either from the herd, or from the flock, or it might 
be a pigeon. In the latter case, its sex, not appearing in 
the representation, was a matter of indifference; but, 
when a quadruped was brought for this species of 
sacrifice, it must be a male, to show the importance 
of the transaction, and to set forth with emphasis the 
energy and earnestness with which the sacrificer gave 
himself to God. The flesh, having been placed on the 
altar, was sent up to heaven in the flame of the holy 
fire. No part of it was reserved, but all was consumed 
as a whole burnt-offering to signify that the self-surren- 
der was entire. 

The burnt-offering was always accompanied by a food- 
offering, and might be regarded as including it were it 



SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



not that in other circumstances the food-offering was 
offered independently. The sacrificer could not truly 
surrender himself to Jehovah without including in his 
consecration the fruits of his life-work; and therefore 
the symbolic transaction must include gifts of corn in 
the form of bread, flour, or roasted ears. 

Holiness will always show itself in the life ; but the 
good deeds which result are not all of one pattern. 
They vary in different persons, as constitutions and 
circumstances are various. Accordingly the Hebrew 
was permitted to symbolize, by any of the preparations 
of wheat he was accustomed to use in his family, the 
good deeds of a holy life, which are "the bread of God." 
But, with the allowance of such variety, it was required 
that the food should always be penetrated with oil, to 
show that the producer of these fruits of holiness had 
been refreshed and enlivened in his labor by the Spirit of 
God. They were also seasoned with salt, the symbol 
of fidelity to engagement, to pledge the sacrificer to a 
real fruitfulness in the good works which his offering 
represented. Whatever kind of food the sacrificer chose 
to bring, he must not forget to accompany it with 
frankincense ; for no offering of good works would be 
acceptable to God unless accompanied with prayer. A 
single handful of the food-offering was consumed by 
firet and the remainder was eaten by the priests, to show 
in this twofold manner Jehovah's acceptance of it. His 
representatives actually ate of it as food which he 
furnished to the officers of his household ; and his 
participation in the feast was symbolized by the burning 
on the altar. The frankincense, however, in correspond- 
ence with its import, was all burned. " Jehovah might 



INTERPRETATION OF THE SACRIFICES. 357 



very well supply his servants, the priests, from the food 
which Israel offered to him as the representative of its 
grateful self- surrender ; but incense, like the prayer 
which it represented, belonged to himself alone." 1 

As the statutes concerning drink-offerings commence 
with the words, " When ye be come into the land," 2 
and there is no mention of any drink-offering actually 
offered in the wilderness, it is reasonable to conclude 
that wine was not a necessary accompaniment of a 
burnt-offering till after the settlement of the Hebrews in 
Canaan. Being thenceforth one of the staple products 
of their land, which they constantly labored for and 
enjoyed, it was required with the parched grains of 
wheat, the fine flour, or the cakes, as an accompaniment 
to every burnt-offering, and with similar intent ; namely, 
to symbolize the consecration of labor and its fruits. 
Its reception on the altar signified that Jehovah had 
pleasure in the results of a consecrated life. 

Peace-offerings signified in general that the sacrificer 
having obtained expiation of his sins, and consecrated 
himself and his substance, was in a state of friendship 
with God. The feast of fellowship in which they 
terminated was at once an expression of love, and a 
means of increasing it in the human party at the feast. 

1 Kurtz : Sacrificial Worship of the Old Testament, p. 298. 

2 Lev. xxiii. 10 ; Num. xv. 2. These statutes refer, it is true, to food-offerings, 
as well as drink-offerings ; but the former had been enjoined by previous legislation, 
and several instances in which they were offered in the wilderness are recorded. It 
would be difficult to account for the manner in which drink-offerings are treated in 
the Pentateuch on any hypothesis which ascribes a later date to these writings than 
the entrance to Canaan. 



358 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

The imposition of hands, the slaughter, and the 
sprinkling of the blood, being performed in the same 
manner as in the burnt-offering and the trespass-offering, 
and therefore with similar significance, need no further 
interpretation. These ceremonies of expiation being 
completed, the disposal of the flesh was next in order. 
Its choicest portions, namely, the fat, were burned on 
the altar to represent the self-surrender of the sacrificer ; 
the breast was reserved for the whole community of 
priests, and the right hind-leg for the individual priest 
who officiated ; the remainder was given back to the 
sacrificer, that he and his friends might participate with 
the household of God, and with God himself, in the 
feast of friendship. Jehovah testified his acceptance 
of the friendly gift, and his enjoyment of it, by allowing 
it to be burned on the altar. The priests, by their 
personal participation in the feast as his officers, and by 
his direction, gave still further demonstration to the same 
effect. The permission to the worshipper to share with 
Jehovah and his household in eating the flesh which had 
been brought to the altar showed the friendly relation 
subsisting between the parties. 

There can be no doubt that the waving of the breast 
and the heaving of the leg was a ceremonial presenta- 
tion to Jehovah of what was to be eaten by the 
members of his household ; and the ceremony of heav- 
ing is easily explained, since the Hebrew word is the 
technical term for lifting upon the altar. The altar was 
ideally a high place, and whatever was offered was lifted 
to the top of it ; and so heaving a thing upward became 
the sign that it was presented to Jehovah. The mode 
in which waving was established as a symbol is less 



INTERPRETATION OF THE SACRIFICES. 359 

evident ; but perhaps the horizontal movement, being 
directed toward the tabernacle, denoted that the gift was 
thus presented to Jehovah for the use of the sanctuary. 
One has only to read the directions for waving and 
heaving to be convinced that, however these movements 
acquired their significance, they signified presentation 
to God. 

On the question, Why was the breast waved, and 
assigned to the priests in general, whilst the leg was 
heaved, and assigned to the officiating priest alone? 
Kurtz ingeniously remarks, "I know no other way 
of arriving at an answer to this question than that of 
tracing the relation of the breast as half -fat to the fat 
of the burnt sacrifice, and that of the leg as the best of 
the flesh to the flesh of the sacrificial meal. As the 
offerer of the sacrifice brought his whole family to 
the sacrificial meal, so Jehovah admitted his whole family, 
so to speak, i. e., the whole of the priests performing 
service at the time, to participate in his enjoyment ; not, 
indeed, by assigning them a portion of the pure fat, 
which would have been thoroughly uneatable, but by 
assigning them the nearest to it, viz., the half-fat ; 
and the reason why this was not heaved, but waved 
'before Jehovah,' i. e., moved toward the door of the 
tabernacle, and then back again toward the priest, was 
probably because the service of the priests in general 
had respect to God who dwelt within the tabernacle. 
And as the wave-breast, as half-fat, was related to the 
meal provided for Jehovah ("the bread of Jehovah"), so 
the heave-leg, as the best of the flesh-meat, was related 
to the meal provided for the offerer. It was heaved, not 
waved, probably to exhibit its relation to the altar upon 



360 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



which Jehovah's portion was burnt. Both of these are 
in perfect harmony with the fact that the leg was 
allotted to the officiating priest alone ; for he alone per- 
formed the loving service for the offerer of presenting 
his gift to Jehovah, and he alone performed the service 
at the altar of sprinkling the blood, and burning the 
sacrifice." 1 

l Sacrificial Worship of the Old Testament, p. 278. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



INTERPRETATION OF THE LUSTRATIONS OF THE 
TABERNACLE. 

The significance of expiatory sacrifices already ap- 
pears. A person who had violated a law might obtain 
an assurance of forgiveness by bringing a sin-offering ; 
and those who were not inwardly accused of any partic- 
ular transgression might, through the same instrumen- 
tality/ be comforted in every approach to God with a 
token that even the sins of which they were unconscious 
were blotted out. It is unnecessary, therefore, to inter 
pret lustration as performed by sprinkling blood: we 
have only to speak of the removal of uncleanness. 

The legal regulations concerning defilement, though 
not implying that the person who had contracted it was 
blameworthy on that account, were fitted to inculcate on 
the people the importance of holiness ; for the analogy 
between physical cleanliness, and purity of heart, is obvi- 
ous, and they well knew that no unsoundness of the 
physique could be more offensive to those who lived 
delicately in kings' courts than filthiness of the spirit 
was to Jehovah. The care enjoined to avoid defilement 
of the body, and to remove it when acquired, was fitted 
to educate them to a high appreciation of inward 
purity, and to the habit of watchfulness against sin as 



362 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

odious to God. Outward cleanness and uncleanness 
were made to symbolize corresponding conditions of the 
heart. 

Moreover, there was a relation between the defilement 
of the flesh for which the law provided lustration, and 
filthiness of spirit ' other than that of analogy ; for the 
former, though acquired without blame on the part of 
the unclean person, had its source and cause in the 
sinfulness of the race. A person became legally unclean 
by contact with offensive substances connected with 
reproduction and with death, however slight the contact, 
but incurred no legal disability on account of a real 
defilement of the person by other means, whatever its 
degree. Such discrimination made it evident that the 
care which the law required of the Hebrew to preserve 
ritual cleanness, as a condition of admittance to the 
habitation of Jehovah, had reference to something else 
than physical offensiveness. The law was as strict 
within the sphere of its demands as that which guarded 
an Oriental monarch from the approach of the filthy, but 
required exemption from such filths only as were in 
some way connected with the succession of individuals 
in the life of the race. Contact with the dead separated 
one from fellowship with Jehovah because death was in 
the world by reason of sin. A leper was unelean, and 
defiled those whom he touched, because death had begun 
its work upon him. Excretions from the organs of 
reproduction 'in like manner defiled, and excluded from 
the habitation of God, because sin had brought a curse 
upon the relation of the sexes. The law of ritual defile- 
ment thus put a mark upon generation and death as 
connected with, and affected by sin, though not in 



INTERPRETATION OF THE LUSTRATIONS. 363 

themselves wrong. It called attention to them as the 
two points where sin made its deepest scars. It taught 
the defiled man that, even if personally innocent of 
transgressing the law of Jehovah, he belonged to a race 
suffering the consequences of sin. 

" It was unquestionably the ban of death, which reigns 
in the human body as the effect of sin, that stamped upon 
the phenomena apparent in the different departments of 
generation, leprosy, and decomposition, the character 
of Levitical uncleanness. And the obligation resting on 
the Israelites not, indeed, to preserve themselves free 
from such uncleanness (for that was impossible), but 
whenever it occurred to purify themselves, or to seek 
purification in a certain prescribed mode, was based 
upon the priestly character and consecration of the 
people as a covenant nation called to approach and hold 
communion with Jehovah, a holy God who could tolerate 
no uncleanness that sprang from sin, but unfit to 
approach him as long as the uncleanness continued." 1 

Uncleanness of the kind first named in the foregoing 
paragraph was ordinarily of the lowest grade known to 
the law, requiring for its removal only the application of 
water, a symbol whose significance is too obvious to need 
interpretation. Childbirth, and disease in the organs of 
generation, rendered necessary a longer lustration, closing 
with a sin-offering. By this addition of an expiatory 
sacrifice, the ceremonial exhibited not only an unclean- 
ness of the individual in consequence of the sinfulness 
of the race, but a personal sinfulness which needed 
forgiveness. The sin-offering did not refer to any sin in 

1 Kurtz : Sacrificial Worship of the Old Testament, p. 42q. 



364 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

particular ; but, the inconvenience to which the unclean 
person was subjected in consequence of the sinfulness of 
the race naturally awakening the consciousness of per- 
sonal guilt, it was mercifully provided as a sacrament 
of absolution. 

The uncleanness caused by contact with the dead 
body of an animal being removable by the application of 
water, the process needs no interpretation. The cere- 
monial by which a person defiled by contact with a 
human corpse was cleansed is less transparent, and the 
novice in symbolism may need aid in studying its signifi- 
cance. This defilement was removed by means of the 
"water of separation," a mixture of pure water with 
ashes, prepared for the purpose by a process which 
itself needs explication. 

Water not sufficing to remove a defilement so deep, 
the ashes of a heifer which had been slain as a sin- 
offering were mingled with it. A male animal being 
normally required for a sin-offering, the exceptional 
requirement of a heifer in this case probably referred 
to the peculiar use of the ashes as an antidote to death, 
the female being eminently the life-producing sex. In 
other victims for the altar, the color was a matter of 
indifference ; but the heifer selected for this purpose 
must be red, for since in man a rosy complexion is a 
sign of vigorous vitality, redness was among the ancients 
a symbol of life even when, as in the case of the heifer, 
the external color had no relation to the vital force 
within. The redness of the cow was an element in her 
fitness to represent life, and be an antidote to death. 
With similar reference to her fitness to stand as a sym- 



INTERPRETATION OF THE LUSTRATIONS. 365 

bolic and sacramental life-bearer, it was required that 
she must not only be without defect or superfluity, as all 
animals brought to the altar must, but be of an age 
indicating the full vigor which belongs to maturity 
before decay has commenced, and have been absolutely 
exempt from the exhaustion of labor. The animal, hav- 
ing been slain, became an expiation by the sprinkling of 
its blood seven times toward the sanctuary ; and its ashes 
thereby acquired a cleansing efficacy to take away 
uncleanness as its blood had taken away sin. It was 
slain not only outside of the sanctuary, but outside of 
the camp, because lustration was the chief end for 
which it was slain. The tabernacle was the normal 
place for a sin-offering ; but all rites of purification, being 
designed for those who could not enter the sanctuary, 
were performed elsewhere ; and, as the deepest kinds of 
uncleanness excluded even from the camp, so the most 
thorough lustrations were significantly commenced afar 
off from the holy habitation of Jehovah, and beyond the 
dwellings of his people. The high-priest, who by rule 
should present the sin-offering of the whole congrega- 
tion, could not officiate because by so doing he would 
put himself into rapport with death and its uncleanness, 
from which, as the head of the holy nation, he must be 
separate ; and therefore, as the ceremony was too impor- 
tant to be performed by an ordinary priest, his son or 
successor must officiate in his stead. The burning of 
the animal in its entirety, there being no other exception 
than the small quantity of blood which had been sprin- 
kled toward the sanctuary, indicated that in the pleni- 
tude of its vitality it was wholly given up to be made an 
antidote to death, and a means of purifying those who 
31* 



366 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



by contact therewith had become defiled. The cedar- 
wood, the coccus-wool, and the hyssop, thrown into the 
fire which consumed the heifer, intensified, the signifi- 
cance of the transaction. The first two as symbols of life, 
and the third as expressive of purification, contributed 
to the power of the residuary ashes to purify from 
the defilement connected with death. The unclean- 
ness contracted by the priest who officiated, by the 
person who burned the heifer, and by the person 
who gathered up the ashes, resulted from the position 
they had assumed of connection with death in order to ■ 
provide for the whole people means of purification. By 
going out of the place of life to prepare, for those who 
were excluded therefrom by contact with death, the 
means of re-admission, they had themselves contracted 
a degree of defilement, but only such as yielded to the 
application of water. 

The ashes thus prepared, when mingled with pure 
water, greatly increased the significance of the latter 
as a symbol of purification, and indicated the specific 
nature of the defilement for which the mixture was an 
antidote. The life-power represented by the heifer, the 
cedar-wood, and the coccus-wool, showed that the 
uncleanness to be removed was connected with and 
occasioned by death. The sprinkling of the mixture 
upon the defiled person was a sign that by contact 
with this "water of separation" he was cleansed from 
his defilement. It was not without meaning that the 
sprinkling was performed with a spray of hyssop, or that 
the clean person by whom the lustration was performed 
became, in consequence of such service, unclean for the 
remainder of the day. Hyssop was itself an emphatic 



INTE R PRE TA TION OF THE L US TRA TIONS. 367 

symbol of purification ; and the temporary defilement of 
the purifier illustrated the intensity of the uncleanness 
which his benevolent errand obliged him to approach. 

The lustration of a leper commenced outside of the 
camp, and was designed in its first stages to effect his admis- 
sion within the camp, but not within the sanctuary. The 
use of two birds naturally suggests an analogy between 
this ceremonial, and that of the day of atonement, which 
required two goats, — one to be slain, and the other to be 
set at liberty. There is doubtless some analogy between 
the two ceremonials, but this important difference 
deserves attention ; namely, that, while the blood of the 
slain goat was sprinkled to make atonement, there is no 
evidence that the bird was propitiatory. It seems rather 
to have been slain for the sake of obtaining its blood as 
a symbol of life. Cedar-wood and coccus-wool were 
added to it as parallel and cumulative symbols. Water 
and hyssop, both expressive of purification, completed 
the mixture ; and the requirement of living, or running 
water, in distinction from that which had been bottled, or 
taken from a cistern, added emphasis to the ceremony. 
The live bird was dipped in this mixture of signs of 
purification and life, to represent the restored leper in 
his passage from his recent condition of disease to 
health, and was set at liberty to continue the represen- 
tation of him as escaping from restraint, and returning 
to the scenes and the society he had enjoyed before his 
misfortune. The application of the same mixture to the 
leper himself also implied that he had passed from 
disease and impurity to health, and fitness to associate 
with the uncontaminated ; while its sevenfold repetition 



368 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

signified restoration to the privileges of the covenant 
between Jehovah and his people. The purification of 
his person by the washing of his body, the removal 
of all his hair, and the washing of his clothes, with which 
this act of the ceremonial ended, completed the repre- 
sentation of a man risen from the uncleanness of death 
to a new life. 

The washing and shaving with which the first act of 
the ceremonial ended, when repeated on the seventh day 
as the commencement of the second part of the lustration, 
had obviously the same significance as before, and served 
to deepen the impression already made in regard to 
the offensiveness of leprosy. Of the ceremonies of the 
eighth day, the most important by far were those 
connected with the trespass-offering. If it is asked, 
Why was a trespass-offering required from a restored 
leper ? the answer doubtless is, that his absence from 
the sanctuary and from the camp was, from the stand- 
point of the covenant, a withholding from Jehovah of 
the service due to him as the national King and God. 
Though involuntary on the part of the leper, it was a 
trespass on the rights of Jehovah, whose claim to the 
service of his people was not annulled by any inability 
to render it resulting from sin. Without blame on 
his part, he had been robbed of the service of one of his 
subjects : consequently that species of sacrifice which 
atoned for an infringement on the rights of property 
was necessary to effect the restoration of the leper, 
The payment of the debt, with the addition of a fifth, as 
the law required in cases where the obligation could be 
estimated in money, was impossible, and therefore not 
mentioned; but in all other respects the ceremonial 



INTERPRETATION OF THE LUSTRATIONS. 369 

proceeded as if the leper had committed a trespass. The 
trespass-offering was so much more important than the 
other sacrifices, that, while doves might be substituted for 
lambs in the sin-offering and the burnt-offering, if the 
leper was a poor man, there could be . no abatement in 
the requirement of a male lamb for a trespass-offering. 
The re-consecration of the man to the service of 
Jehovah, by means of the blood of the trespass-offering, 
showed that he was accepted notwithstanding his trespass ; 
and the application of it to the tip of his right ear, 
the thumb of his right hand, and the great toe of his 
right foot, signified, as in the similar consecration of the 
priests, the sanctification of the whole body of which 
these were the parts principally concerned, and of the 
whole being of which these were the chief factors. 
Some of the oil which had been waved with the lamb of 
the trespass-offering, and thus had become the property 
of Jehovah, was similarly applied to the ear, the thumb, 
and the toe, and the remainder poured upon the head, 
as a sign that the Spirit of God was imparted to 
the restored leper to enliven and strengthen him for the 
service to which he was sanctified. But, before the oil 
was thus used for anointing, some of it was sprinkled 
toward the sanctuary as a sign that the enlivening 
influence thus represented enabled the recipient of it 
acceptably to approach Jehovah in his sanctuary. The 
ceremonial being coincident with that which set apart 
the priesthood in its use of blood and oil, and in the 
application of them to the ear, the thumb, and the toe, 
and different from it only in the application of them 
separately instead of jointly, cannot be very different in 
its significance. The similarity both in the forms and 



37 o SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

in their significance is to be accounted for on the ground 
that, Israel being a kingdom of priests, the leper by 
these rites of lustration was restored to a sacerdotal 
status. To the objection that the people were conse- 
crated at Sinai with blood only, it may be replied that 
they were already the people of Jehovah, and had been in 
covenant with him from the time of Abraham ; while the 
leper, exscinded from the covenant people, and forbidden 
to enter the camp, was farther from Jehovah than the 
Hebrews were previous to the covenant at Sinai. The 
sin-offering and holocaust with which the ceremonial 
ended require no interpretation, as they were performed 
in the usual manner, and conveyed the same significance 
as on other occasions. A word, however, may be useful, 
accounting for the requirement of a sin-offering as part 
of the ceremonial. A sin-offering was ordinarily a 
voluntary sacrifice brought by one who was conscious of 
sin. But, even if no consciousness of transgression had 
sprung up in the soul during the long absence from the 
sanctuary, it must at least be true that the leper might 
have sinned ; and, as there were stated sin-offerings for 
the whole people to cover such possibilities, so, analo- 
gously, this propitiatory sacrifice was appointed for the 
leper at his restoration, that he might re-enter into 
the fellowship of the covenant with an assurance that the 
sins he had committed during his exclusion, whether 
they had revealed themselves to his consciousness, or 
not, were blotted out. The propriety of a sacrifice of 
dedication, as part of such a ceremonial, is obvious. 



CHAPTER XV. 



INTERPRETATION OF THE CALENDAR OF THE 
TABERNACLE. 

A prominent feature in the Hebrew calendar of 
worship is the dominance of seven. Every seventh day 
was set apart from labor as a time of rest and holy 
convocation. Every seventh year the land rested from 
tillage: at the end of seven of these periods of seven 
years, the land rested a second year, and was restored to 
the family to which it originally belonged, whatever 
changes of tenure might have taken place during the 
cycle. There were seven days of rest and holy convo- 
cation during the year, in addition to those which 
occurred weekly. The seventh month of the year was 
ushered in with the sound of trumpets, proceeding first 
from the sanctuary, and immediately propagated through 
the land ; and its first day was one of the seven annually 
recurring sabbaths. It was also signalized by the assign- 
ment to it of those festivals which were not bound to 
some other time of the year by historical association or 
natural fitness ; the day of atonement, the festival of 
tabernacles, and the day of rest and convocation, which 
closed not only this particular festival, but all the 
annually recurring solemnities of the year, being included 

37i 



SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



in the seventh or sabbatical month. The passover, and 
the festival of tabernacles, occupied each seven days ; 
and this was the limit of all solemnities which lasted 
more than one day. 

The observance of the seventh day of the week is 
expressly connected in the decalogue with the work of 
God in creating the world; and the number seven 
whenever it determined the length of festivals, or the 
time of their occurrence, as in the instances cited above, 
conveyed, to one versed in Hebrew symbolism, thoughts 
of the union of the infinite with the finite, of the divine 
with the human, of Jehovah with his people. 

The daily service was a constant recognition of 
Jehovah as their God by the priestly nation, and, on his 
part, of them as his people. The morning and evening 
holocausts were a perpetual profession by them that 
they gave themselves, and the fruits of righteousness 
which they brought forth with the aid of his Spirit, to 
Him on whose altar they placed the lamb with its 
appointed accompaniment of flour, wine, incense, salt, 
and oil. The reception of the sacrifice on the altar by 
trie officers of his household was an assurance from 
Jehovah that he accepted with pleasure the spiritual 
sacrifice of which it was the sign. The reservation of a 
part of the food-offering, to be eaten by the priests as 
" the bread of their God," served to show his fellowship 
with his people in the enjoyment of their sanctifica- 
tion. 

The service within the habitation exhibited the state 
of God's people as redeemed, justified, and received to 
communion with him by faith. The table showed the 



INTERPRETATION OF THE CAIENDAR. 373 

fruits of righteousness, the chandelier the light they 
diffused, the altar of incense their offerings of prayer 
and praise. In the exhibition of the kingdom of God in 
this its second stage, it was not necessary to symbolize 
propitiation by the sprinkling of blood, or self-surrender 
by the offering of an animal ; since these first steps in 
the way of life were presupposed by the presence in this 
place of the people through their representatives. The 
symbols of the first chamber of the tabernacle were 
designed rather to exhibit the results of propitiation and 
self-surrender in the holy lives of God's people. They 
are the same symbols which in the court accompany, 
and are subsidiary to, the bleeding sacrifice ; but here they 
present in full development an idea which there was 
exhibited only in germ. The corn, wine, oil, and 
incense, which in the court were offered on the same 
altar, are here offered on three several altars, as if the 
bud had swelled and opened into a blossom of three 
petals. The food-offering has not only been raised from 
a subsidiary to an independent position, but is divided 
into three distinct sacrifices. By this expansion of the 
symbolism, it became richer in its significance, and more 
instructive. The symbols, moreover, were not only 
separated one from another, but were of finer quality 
than was required in the court ; since the corn which 
there was presented as flour was here made into cakes, 
the oil must be the purest that could be obtained, the 
incense was a compound of that ordinarily used with 
other most precious spices, according to a recipe used 
for this purpose exclusively. Thus expanded and 
honored, the symbolism of the food-offering exhibited 
the people of God worshipping and serving him in his 

3 2 



374 



SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



temple day and night continually, and him as feasting 
on the fruits of their sanctification, rejoicing in the light 
they diffused, and pleased with their worship, as if they 
had filled his house with the finest perfume. 

The observance of every seventh day by the Hebrews, 
whether first established at Sinai, or received by tradi- 
tion from their fathers, was a memorial of the creation 
of the world by Jehovah. But the Mosaic narrative of 
the creation, fairly interpreted, implies that the week as 
a division of time was instituted at the beginning of 
human history, and that every seventh day was from the 
first celebrated with the same intent as is ascribed to 
the weekly sabbath in the fourth commandment. The 
Mosaic law, in giving its sanction to an institution already 
existing, prescribed the manner in which it should be 
observed, — namely, by abstinence from labor, a holy con- 
vocation, the duplication of the two daily sacrifices, and 
the renewal of the show-bread, — but in no way changed 
its * significance. In whatever mode the monotheists 
of preceding centuries had hallowed the day, whether 
by abstinence from labor, or by sacrifice, or both, they 
observed it as a memorial of God's work of creation. 
This memorial observance of the seventh day from the 
beginning may have occasioned the hebdomadal division 
of time which we find in the earliest nations, and may 
have originated the speculations on number which 
before the time of Abraham had established seven as 
the numerical symbol of transactions between the Crea- 
tor and the creature. The sabbath was therefore a sign 
to the Hebrews primarily of the first transaction between 
the two parties to which, in common with the rest 



INTERPRETATION OF THE CALENDAR. 375 

of the ancient world, they applied three and four as 
numerical symbols. But, by means of their symbolism, 
it put on a wider meaning, so as to cover with its sug- 
gestiveness the whole field in which the Creator and the 
creature are brought together. The observance of it 
was an acknowledgment of Jehovah in his relations to 
the universe in general, and in the special relations he 
sustained to their nation ; the desecration of it was a 
breach of their engagement that he should be their God, 
and that they would be his people, as well as a denial of 
him as the Creator. 

As a month was with the Hebrews a natural division 
of time as truly as a day, a ceremonial was provided for 
the new moon, as well as for the rising and the setting 
sun. On the first day of the month, a sin-offering was 
presented for the whole congregation, developing more 
fully, and making more prominent, the ideas of sin and 
forgiveness expressed by the daily sprinkling of blood ; 
a large addition was made to the daily burnt-offering, to 
show forth with an impressiveness commensurate with 
the importance of a month as compared with a day the 
same ideas which were conveyed by " the continual 
burnt-offering;" and the silver trumpets were blown by 
the priests in the tabernacle to remind Jehovah of his 
people. 1 As the seventh day was honored above other 
days, so was the seventh month above other months ; a 
sabbatical character being communicated to it by the 
day of rest and convocation with which it was intro- 
duced, the day of atonement, the festival of tabernacles, 
and the atzereth, or day of rest and convocation, which 

1 Num. x. 9, 10. 



376 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

brought the festivals of the year to a formal conclusion. 
The seven which marked its place in the calendar sanc- 
tified it as a remembrancer of God in his relation to the 
world and its inhabitants, and especially to his kingdom 
on earth and the people of his covenant. 

The festival of the passover commemorated the deliv- , 
erance from Egypt. 

At its first institution it was prescribed that the pas- 
chal lamb should be selected on the tenth day of the 
month, or four days before it was slaughtered ; but, as 
this requirement was not incorporated into the statutes 
concerning its perpetual observance, the significance 
of four was not relatively of great importance. That 
which it signified might, however, have been of greater 
value to the generation which came out of Egypt than 
to their posterity ; and this consideration favors the 
belief that whereas the lamb was to be selected before- 
hand in order that the people by the sight of it might 
be better prepared for the celebration of the symbolic 
rites, the period of waiting was determined by four 
rather than by some other number with reference to the 
time the Hebrews had spent in Egypt. It had been 
announced to Abraham that his posterity would be 
enslaved in a strange land, and after serving their 
oppressors four centuries, or generations, 1 would expe- 
rience a great deliverance, and return to Canaan. If 
this announcement had been transmitted from father to 
son, the limitation of the days of waiting to four would 
have great pertinence, and incite the people to prayer 
and expectation. The length of the bondage was of less 

1 Gen. xv. 13, 16. 



INTERPRETATION OF THE CALENDAR. 377 



concern to subsequent generations, and was not exhibited 
in the symbolism with which the deliverance was to be 
celebrated in the promised land. 1 

The sacrifice of the paschal lamb was so peculiar in 
its ceremonial that one hesitates to class it under any of 
the four species of animal sacrifice. It bears most 
resemblance to the peace-offerings, but is perhaps best 
disposed of if regarded as belonging to a species of 
which Mosaism furnished only this one specimen. It 
differed from all the other animal sacrifices in not being 
brought to the altar, and in the omission of blood- 
sprinkling. These differences, if they existed only in 
regard to the celebration of the passover in Egypt, 
might be accounted for on the ground that there was 
then no national sanctuary toward which the blood could 
be sprinkled, and no national altar on the north side of 
which the lamb could be slain ; but the same differences 
obtained in Canaan as in Egypt. The sacrifice must be 
offered in the neighborhood of the sanctuary ; 2 but there 
is no evidence that it was brought within the sacred 
enclosure, and the number of such sacrifices to be 
offered in a single evening utterly forbids the supposi- 

1 A different significance has here been attributed to four from that which it 
ordinarily conveyed in ancient symbolism. Four is primarily the signature of the 
world reduced to order, and secondarily of the kingdom of God in the world ; but, 
as a word may be used in several meanings having no apparent connection one 
with another, may not a similar experience have happened to symbols ? We use 
the word spring to signify a leap, an issue of water from the earth, an elastic body, 
or a season of the year : is it not possible that further induction would show that 
four has other symbolic power than that of suggesting an organized creation ? In 
no other instance has the writer of this volume ventured to deviate from the induc- 
tive method of determining the meaning of a symbol. If he has erred in this 
instance, the exception may perhaps serve to establish more firmly in the mind of 
the reader the principle that only one meaning is to be allowed to a symbol. 

2 Deut. xvi. 6. 

32* 



378 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

tion. Notwithstanding these peculiarities, however, the 
paschal lamb was truly a sacrifice, being so styled in 
the Mosaic law, 1 and so regarded by the apostle Paul. 2 

But, if its death was sacrificial, its blood was expiatory 
like that of all animal offerings; and the subsequent 
meal was a feast of fellowship with Jehovah like those 
which followed peace-offerings, such a privilege having 
been secured by means of the expiation. This sacrifice, 
however, as compared with a peace-offering, left expiation 
in the background, and made fellowship prominent. 
The supper exhibited the celebrants as belonging to the 
family of God, and feeding at his table. It was a pledge, 
at the first celebration, that Jehovah would protect and 
provide for those whom he called out of Egypt : it was a 
memorial, when celebrated in Canaan by their descend- 
ants, that with a strong hand and an outstretched arm he 
did deliver those who ate the first passover supper. 

The lamb must be placed on the table whole, no bone 
being broken, and no part being cut away in the process 
of preparation, to exhibit more perfectly the oneness of 
the partakers with each other, and with the divine 
Deliverer. By eating together the unbroken and 
undivided lamb, they were, in the significance of the 
symbolic act, one, as the morsels of food placed before 
them formed one body. The same symbolic significance 
is attributed by the apostle Paul to the Lord's Supper 
when he says, " The bread which we break, is it not the 
communion of the body of Christ? For we being 
many are one bread, and one body: for we are all 
partakers of that one bread!' 3 Not only must the lamb 
be placed on the table whole, but no part might 

i Deut. xvi. 6. 2 i Cor. v. 7. 8 1 Cor. x. 16, 17. 



INTERPRETATION OF THE CALENDAR. 379 

afterward be carried to another house, the symbolic 
significance of its integrity requiring that it should be 
eaten in one place. It was also important that, as nearly 
as possible, it should be entirely consumed; and, with 
this in view, the direction was given, that, if one family 
was too small to eat the whole of a lamb, two or more 
families should unite in the paschal supper. Whatever 
portion remained was to be burned, that the flesh might 
neither see corruption, nor be used as common food. 
This disposal of the remnant of the feast, as all sacrificial 
flesh was disposed of which could not be eaten, showed 
that the supper was not a common repast, but a sacri- 
ficial meal, and that the fellowship into which the 
partakers were brought as members of one body was a 
holy fellowship. The equipment of the celebrants for 
travel, and the haste with which they ate, as if intending 
a journey, and wishing to be on the way as soon as 
possible, referred to the condition of the Hebrews on the 
memorable night when the paschal supper was first 
eaten. The bitter vegetables which accompanied the 
roast lamb at the paschal supper referred probably to 
the bitterness of the bondage from which the Hebrews 
were delivered. It is recorded in the national history 
that "the Egyptians made the- children of Israel to 
serve with rigor, and made their lives bitter with hard 
bondage ; " 1 and this element was introduced into the 
symbolism of the paschal supper to connect, in the re- 
membrance of the celebrants, the suffering with the 
deliverance. By as much as the former was made to 
appear more bitter, was the latter more highly appre- 
ciated. 

1 Exo&i. 13, 14. 



380 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

The unleavened bread which not only accompanied the 
paschal lamb, but was the only bread allowed during 
the seven days following the supper, symbolized the state 
of moral uncorruptness to which the Hebrews were called 
by their divine Deliverer. Leaven was the symbol of 
corruption, and thence of moral impurity, and for this 
reason was excluded from food-offerings to Jehovah. 
The only exceptions were, that when the two loaves 
were presented on the day of pentecost, as the first- 
fruits of bread, they must be baked as at other times with 
leaven, it being so important that the offering should be 
made in kind, and thus truly consist of the first-fruits, 
that the symbolism of leaven was disregarded ; and that 
when a man brought a peace-offering, as an expression 
of gratitude for a favor already received, he must bring 
leavened bread with the pastry of his thank-offering. 1 
The leaven in these anomalous instances was less objec- 
tionable, as no part of the bread was laid on the altar, but 
all of it was either for the priest, or for the festal board 
to which the offerer invited his friends. Because leaven 
was a symbol of moral impurity, the absence of it was 
required during the festival which commemorated the 
calling of Israel out of Egypt to be a holy nation. That 
such was the significance of the banishment of leaven 
not merely from the tables, but from the houses, of the 
Hebrews during "the days of unleavened bread," is evi- 
dent both from the similar use of the symbol in other 
parts of the Mosaic institutions, and from the allusion of 
the apostle Paul when he says, " For even Christ our 
passover is sacrificed for us : therefore let us keep the 
feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of 



1 Lev. xxiii. 17, vii. 13. 



INTERPRETATION OF THE CALENDAR. 381 

malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread 
of sincerity and truth." 1 But, though leaven was sym- 
bolic of wickedness, it was also a very useful ingredient 
in bread, rendering it much more palatable than unleav- 
ened bread, unless the latter was prepared with oil as 
in the food-offerings to Jehovah. As no mention is 
made of oil in connection with the unleavened bread to 
be used during the week following the passover, we may 
infer that no such substitute for leaven was allowed, and 
that the bread was less palatable than that which they 
ordinarily ate. Thus we may account for the facts that 
it is called "the bread of affliction," 2 and mentioned in 
connection with the flight from Egypt, as if it commem- 
orated a time of trouble. 3 These facts have led some 
interpreters to infer that the Hebrews who fled from 
Egypt were directed to use unleavened bread during 
their flight, on account of the haste and tribulation 
which prevented the preparation of more palatable 
bread, and that the requirement of unleavened bread in 
the subsequent annual celebrations was primarily a 
reminder of the haste with which the fathers fled. It 
may be true that the absence of both leaven and oil was 
thus intended, but the mere prohibition of leaven cannot 
be thus understood ; for surely bread of affliction and of 
haste would not have been required or even allowed as a 
food-offering for Jehovah. We must give to the absence 
of leaven the same significance in the unleavened bread 
of the passover as in the food-offerings of the court, and 
the show-bread within the tabernacle. 

The sheaf of barley waved on the second day of the 
passover-week, and thus presented to Jehovah for the use 

1 1 Cor. v. 7, 8. 2 Deut. xvi. 3. 3 Ibid. 



382 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



of the priests, was the earnest of the cereal harvest, 
and was rendered acceptable by an accompanying 
burnt-offering which, as a symbol of expiation and self- 
consecration, formed a basis for such a presentation of 
first-fruits. There was no peace-offering because, as the 
harvest had not yet been gathered, it was proper to hold 
in abeyance the sacrifices of thanksgiving. It is, how- 
ever, worthy of notice that the particular reference of 
the ceremonial to the approaching harvest of cereals 
was indicated by the requirement of twice the quantity 
of flour usually offered with such a holocaust, while the 
drink-offering was not increased because there was no 
special reference to the vintage. 

The occasional sacrifices which signalized each of the 
seven "days of unleavened bread "were greater than 
those of a weekly sabbath, equivalent to those ordinarily 
offered at the appearance of a new moon, and exceeded 
only by those of the seventh new moon, the day of pen- 
tecost, and the festival of tabernacles. No other week, 
therefore, during the year, except the week of rejoicing 
over the autumnal harvest, presented in its sacrifices 
such calls to self-dedication as the week following the 
paschal supper ; and there were but few single days in 
the calendar which inculcated the duty with a ceremo- 
nial as impressive as that which during this festival was 
repeated daily for seven days. There were important 
reasons in the symbolic significance of seven why that 
number should determine the duration of the days of 
unleavened bread." The deliverance from Egypt was a 
transaction of Jehovah with the people of his covenant, 
eminently deserving to be indicated as such since he 
brought them out with a strong hand and an out- 



INTERPRETATION OF THE CALENDAR. 383 

stretched arm, achieving their salvation by wonderful 
interferences with the natural course of events. 

The festival of pentecost was not historically com 
memorative like that of the passover, but had its basis in 
the fact that the cereal harvest was now gathered ; as is 
evident from the distinguishing ceremony of the day, 
namely, the presentation to Jehovah, by waving, of two 
loaves of bread made of new wheat as a required pre- 
liminary to the domestic use of the grain which had 
4 been harvested, and from the relation this festival bears 
to the presentation of the first sheaf as indicated by the 
direction to count fifty days from that ceremony to 
the similar presentation of the first loaves. The waving 
of a sheaf or omer of the earliest barley was a consecra- 
tion of the harvest into which the first sickle had that 
day been thrust ; and the waving of the loaves of wheaten 
bread was an act of thanksgiving for the cereal fruits of 
every kind which had now been gathered. It was fit 
that the offering with which the harvest opened should 
be brought to the sanctuary in the sheaf, and, since barley 
was the earliest grain, as a sheaf of barley ; and equally 
appropriate that, when all kinds of grain had been har- 
vested, the offering should be presented in a form exhib- 
iting the produce of the land prepared as food for the 
use of man, and since wheat ripened latest, and excelled 
in quality, in the form of wheaten bread. The first 
ceremony looked forward with devout hopefulness to a 
blessing which the second acknowledged as already in 
possession. The numerical increase from one sheaf to 
two loaves is also worthy of notice, especially as each 
loaf contained an omer of flour, which, as the word seems 



384 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

to indicate, was the quantity yielded by an omer or sheaf. 
" Two-tenths of an ephah of white meal were used in 
the preparation of these two loaves. As an omer of 
ears probably yielded about an omer of grain or flour, it 
is a significant fact that exactly double the quantity 
required for the Easter offering of first-fruits was 
ordered to be used for the wave-loaves; and this 
doubling of the quantity was also shown in the fact that 
the flour was made into two loaves, and not into one 
only. In the symbolism of the Hebrews, however, 
doubling always expressed a higher gradation, which 
rested, in the present case, upon the contrast between 
the beginning and the close of the harvest." 1 

The difference between a harvest in anticipation and 
a harvest in possession accounts also for the peace- 
offerings at pentecost, a species of sacrifice not appointed 
to be brought in the name of the whole congregation on 
any other day in the calendar. The waving of the two 
lambs in connection with the two loaves presented them 
to Jehovah for the use of the priests, as an expression of 
thanks for the cereal produce of the land appropriate 
only when the harvest had been secured. 

The sacrifices of the festival apart from those which 
belonged to the waving of the loaves were equivalent to 
the sacrifices appointed for the days of unleavened 
bread, and the ordinary new-moons ; and the additional 
sacrifices occasioned by the waving of the loaves, placed 
the day on a level with the seventh new-moon. 

The festival of trumpets, with its rest from labor, its 
holy convocation, its augmented holocaust, and its inspir- 

1 Kurtz 1 Sacrificial Worship of the Old Testament, p. 378. 



INTERPRETATION OF THE CALENDAR. 385 

ing music, imparted a sabbatical character, as we had 
occasion to remark at the beginning of the chapter, to 
the month already bearing the sabbatical number, — a 
character which became yet more decided by the inclu- 
sion within it of three annual sabbaths in addition to 
that with which it commenced, and of all festivals not 
bound to some other month by a necessity inherent in 
their nature. The whole month, because it was seventh 
in the calendar, was a reminder of Jehovah and of his 
relations and dealings with the people of his covenant ; 
out the first day of the month was eminently so, being 
appointed as " a memorial of blowing of trumpets." 1 Its 
rest from labor, its holy convocation, and its augmented 
holocaust, called attention to the significance, as seventh 
in the calendar, of the moon which now made its first 
appearance ; and the sound of thousands of trumpets, 
prolonging the peculiar blast with which the priests blew 
at this sabbatical moon, reminded Jehovah of his people 
and their sacrifices more loudly than at ordinary new- 
moons. That the "memorial of blowing of trumpets" 
was intended to remind Jehovah of his people, as well as 
them of him, or, more accurately, to assure the people that 
they were remembered by their God, is evident from 
the ordinance concerning the manufacture and use of the 
two silver trumpets ; which particularly assures them 
that they shall be remembered by Jehovah, and saved 
from their enemies, if these trumpets are sounded in 
battle, and charges them to blow the trumpets over the 
sacrifices at the new-moons, that they might be a 
" memorial before God." 2 



1 Lev. xxiii. 24. 
33 



2 Num. x. 9, 10. 



386 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

The day of annual atonement reveals its design in the 
appellation itself ; and its occurrence but once in a year 
shows that it was the highest and most comprehensive 
of the expiatory provisions of the law. The basis of the 
institution was in the defectiveness of the other and 
more frequent expiations, which made it necessary that 
they should be complemented by one as high in rank, 
and as extensive in applicability, as the symbolic appa- 
ratus permitted. The sanctuary, as it stood in' the 
midst of a people who, though chosen unto holiness, were 
also sinful, and was served by officials who, though 
chosen out of the people to a higher holiness, were par- 
takers of the common sinfulness, needed to be purified 
from the uncleanness imparted by the contact of such 
worshippers and such ministers ; and its services of 
expiation, inasmuch as they were liable to the imperfection 
which inheres in all works wrought by human instru- 
mentality, were acceptable to Jehovah, and satisfactory 
to sensitive consciences, only when they had themselves 
been expiated by the sprinkling of blood. It is true that 
there was also a liability to imperfection in the ceremo- 
nies of the annual atonement ; but, in the first place, it 
was easier to provide that every thing should be done in 
exact accordance with the ritual in a service which 
occurred but once in a year, than in all services ; and, in 
the second place, as the object in complementing the 
frequent acts of sprinkling blood was not to satisfy 
speculative objections, but to assist the faith of believ- 
ing sinners, it was wise and kind to do so by showing 
that the defects which they discovered or suspected had 
been foreseen and remedied. The possibility of defect 
in the remedial and complementary provision might 



INTERPRETATION OF THE CALENDAR. 387 

even serve a good purpose in suggesting that this was 
not the real, but only a symbolic remedy, having its 
counterpart in spiritual things at present covered with 
mystery, but to be revealed at the good pleasure of 
Jehovah. 

As the annual expiation was the highest in the sym- 
bolic institutions, the blood must be sprinkled on the 
capporeth, or golden cover of the ark, as the holiest 
object within the tabernacle, the very throne of Jehovah ; 
and the sprinkling must be performed by the highest 
of the priests. As a remedy for the defects of rites 
performed by human instrumentality, it covered with its 
provisions the whole field of expiation, cancelling the 
sins of the nation and of individuals, and thereby 
purging the sanctuary itself from the uncleanness 
which otherwise it might acquire from contact with 
sinners. 

The first thing in the special service of expiation 
which deserves attention, is the peculiar dress in which 
the high-priest officiated. Having worn his garments of 
gold while the sacrifices of the morning, both the con- 
tinual and the occasional, were offered, he laid them 
aside, and put on garments of white. Like the costume 
of an ordinary priest, they consisted of four pieces ; but 
there is no reason to conclude that his turban was con- 
formed in shape to those of his subordinates, or was in 
any respect different from that which at other times 
distinguished him as the head of the sacerdotal order, 
except in the absence of the golden crown and the 
ribbons of blue. On the contrary, it is reasonable to 
believe that, as the high-priest alone could perform these 
solemn rites, he retained a badge of rank which was in 



388 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

no way inconsistent with the significant act of exchan- 
ging his garments of gold for a garb of white. Whatever 
the significance of this exchange may have been, it was 
conveyed with greater force because the costume he 
assumed was wholly white, and not, like that of a subor- 
dinate priest, variegated with a girdle containing the 
other sacred colors. These garments of white signified 
that the wearer was representing Jehovah not, as ordina- 
rily, in the fulness of his attributes, but, in accordance 
with the peculiar character of the day, in the splendor of 
his holiness. The sin to be removed was in contrast 
with the purity of Jehovah, who, by the rites appointed 
for this day, declared that he received the expiated trans- 
gressors as if they had kept, themselves pure like him- 
self. Hence it was important to symbolize clearly and 
emphatically that attribute of the divine nature which, 
being opposed to sin, requires its removal before the 
transgressor is treated as he would have been if holy. 
The person appointed to transact with the people in 
the name of Jehovah therefore disrobed himself of the 
apparel which by means of gold, jewels, and colors, 
symbolized not only holiness, but life, royalty, and 
heavenliness, to put on, for the special service of expia- 
tion, a costume symbolizing nothing but holiness. Thus, 
by the temporary removal of other attributes from view, 
the antagonism of Jehovah to the sin he blotted out was 
more clearly and impressively exhibited. That these 
garments of white represented holiness, and not, as some 
have supposed, the humiliation and sorrow of the people 
on account of sin, is evident from the designation of 
them in the directions for the day as " holy garments," 3 



i Lev. xvi. 4. 



INTERPRETATION OF THE CALENDAR. 389 

and from the uniformity with which, in other cases, white 
raiment symbolizes purity and splendor. 

But this representative of the purity of Jehovah was 
himself a sinful man, and, as such, needed expiation. 
His first act, therefore, in the ceremonial of the day, was 
the presentation of a sin-offering for himself and his 
associates in the priesthood. As befitted the high posi- 
tion of the persons whose sins were to be taken away, 
and the consequently greater importance of their trans- 
gressions, the victim was of the highest grade ; and, as 
befitted the crowning expiatory service of the year, its 
blood was carried to the holiest apartment of the taber- 
nacle. It was here sprinkled once on the mercy-seat, 
and seven times on the ground in front of it ; the first 
application of the blood having reference to the restora- 
tion of the sacerdotal order to the favor of Jehovah, and 
the seven which followed to the anticipated removal 
from this apartment of the uncleanness which other- 
wise it might contract from their sins. The admis- 
sion of the blood within the holy of holies showed 
that the penitent sinners in whose behalf the symbol of 
life was brought, might come not merely where they 
could have fellowship with God by faith, but where there 
should be no veil between him and them ; and its appli- 
cation to the golden mercy-seat, where Jehovah dwelt 
enthroned between the cherubim, set forth the fulness of 
fellowship with him to which they were entitled by 
virtue of the atoning blood. 

The symbol was thus prophetic, since the expiation 
was performed in behalf of the whole priesthood, while 
only the high-priest could enter the holy of holies, and 
come to the capporeth. It was a sign 'that those for 

33* 



SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



whom the bullock had surrendered his life were alive 
unto God with such fulness of life, that the curtain of 
separation should not always exclude them from the 
nearer approach, and more intimate fellowship, symbolized 
by the innermost apartment of the tabernacle. The 
sprinkling on the ground in front of the mercy-seat was 
the application to this apartment of the blood which, as 
it cancelled the sins of the priests, was efficacious to 
take away also from the symbolic apparatus the con- 
taminating uncleanness of death consequent on sin. 
The septenary number fitly associates with this lustra- 
tion the idea of the covenant, as if Jehovah had purged 
the sanctuary that, according to his engagement with 
his people, he might dwell among them. 

One defect in the ceremonial by which the sins of the 
high-priest were taken away is obvious to the most 
careless observer, as is also the necessity which compels 
the introduction of it. There being no person who 
could mediate between Jehovah and his highest official, 
the sinner himself acts in the place of a mediator, 
entering the holy of holies before he was expiated, and 
presenting the blood of his own sin-offering ; but this 
very imperfection was serviceable to the ultimate design 
of the symbolism, as it was suggestive of a greater 
priest, who should be sinless, and therefore able to do in 
reality what the symbolic priest could effect only as he 
was a symbol and a type. If there was any signifi- 
cance in the symbolic apparatus, the removal of sin from 
the high-priest before he could officiate as an expiatory 
mediator declared the necessity that there should 
be a sinless priest, the impossibility of finding him in 
the family of Aaron, and the consequent probability 



INTERPRETATION OF THE CALENDAR. 391 

that, though still unrevealed, such a priest had been 
provided. 

The holy of holies being now purified from the sins of 
the priesthood, similar ceremonies with the blood of the 
goat elected to be slain, purified it from the uncleanness 
consequent on the sins of the whole people. The outer 
apartment was then cleansed by sprinkling the blood of 
the two sin-offerings at one and the same time ; after- 
ward the altar in the court was purified, the lustration 
being confined to the altar because it alone was regarded 
as a seat of Jehovah, the court being the place where the 
holy nation dwelt, and the altar his dwelling-place in the 
midst of them. 

The second goat was a part of the sin-offering, supple- 
menting the symbolism of the other by representing 
that the sins of the nation were removed, to be forever 
out of sight. The first covered with its life the forfeited 
lives of those who had sinned, and showed that they 
were still alive unto God, and entitled to approach the 
Living One in his habitation : the second carried away 
the sins themselves. The two goats were one sin- 
offering ; 1 and the sacrifice consisted of two animals, 
because, in the nature of the case, one could not symbol- 
ize all that was to be represented. As, in the lustration 
of the leper, two birds were necessary, because one could 
not furnish its blood to be used as a symbol of life to 
show that the person who had been a leper was now 
whole, and also fly away to represent that he was 
restored to freedom, so the sacrifice for sin, on the day 
of atonement, required two goats, that one might repre- 
sent the means and the other the effect of redemption ; it 

1 Lev. xvi. 5. 



392 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

being impossible that the two parts of the representation 
should be acted by one and the same animal. The 
assignment of each animal by lot to the particular part 
it was to bear in the ceremonial shows, that they were, 
until thus assigned, equal and exchangeable factors in 
the representation. The lot determined which should 
be for Jehovah, and which should be for removal ; which 
should cover the sins of the people by surrendering its 
life, and which should carry away the sins thus covered 
into utter separation. 

" Scape-goat " is probably an inaccurate translation of 
azazel, but does not materially deflect the sentences in 
which the word occurs from their true meaning. The 
word not being found elsewhere in the Scriptures, we 
have only its etymology, and its relative position in the 
ordinance concerning the day of atonement, to teach us 
its definition. Azazel is in Arabic the proper name of an 
evil spirit ; and it has been inferred that the word is thus 
used in this passage. But such an interpretation of the 
ceremonial of the day of atonement is contradictory to 
the spirit of Mosaism, and less probable than the supposi- 
tion that Mohammedans derived the proper name Azazel 
from this passage as erroneously interpreted either by 
themselves or by Jewish commentators. Tholuck has 
suggested that azazel is an abstract noun from azal, to 
remove, and signifies " complete removal." 1 

The cloud of incense which filled the holy of holies 
while the ceremonial of the two sin-offerings was in 
progress, was for the purpose of covering from the sight 
of the high-priest the pillar of cloud which rested . over 
the mercy-seat. But, since the burning of incense is a 

1 Das alte Testament im neuen Testament, p. 83, note. 



INTERPRETATION OF THE CALENDAR. 393 

symbol of prayer, we may believe that the fragrant "cloud 
which concealed the shechinah from the high-priest, was 
also designed to teach him that he should come into the 
presence of God not with familiarity and irreverence, 
but in the spirit of worship. The material from which 
the enveloping cloud was formed thus coincided with the 
envelopment itself in the exaltation of Jehovah. 

As was customary and appropriate after sin-offerings, 
sacrifices of dedication, wherein both priests and people 
professed to surrender themselves to God, followed the 
ceremonial of expiation. Before the high-priest pro- 
ceeded to offer these burnt-offerings, he put off the 
garments whose significance was specially appropriate 
to offices for the removal of sin, and resumed the 
costume which more fully expressed the dignity and 
authority with which he was clothed as the authorized 
representative of Jehovah. 

Normally, so much of the flesh of sin-offerings as was 
not consumed on the altar, was eaten by the priests, as 
the holy household of God sharing with him in his joy 
over the restoration of the ruined. But as the bullock 
had been offered for the priests themselves, and the goat 
for the nation in which the priests were included, they 
could not appear in this representation as the holy 
associates of Jehovah. This part of the representation, 
therefore, was omitted, as on all occasions when atone- 
ment was made either for the priests specifically, or for 
the nation in general. * The flesh of the bullock and 
of the goat, instead of being eaten by the priests within 
the enclosure of the tabernacle, was carried beyond the 
boundary line of the encampment, and burned to ashes 
as too holy for any common use. 



SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



The uncleanness of the person who led away the living 
goat into the wilderness, and of the person who burned 
the slain goat and the bullock, was consequent on going 
out of the holy encampment. It is a very great mis- 
take to suppose that they acquired it by touching the 
sin-offerings, which, so far from imparting defilement, 
were in the highest degree holy, — more holy than 
peace-offerings ; the latter being simply " holy," while 
a sin-offering was always " most holy," 1 and was, in all 
cases when the priests had not disqualified themselves by 
sin, to be eaten within the habitation of Jehovah, by the 
members of his household separated from the rest of 
the nation to a higher sanctity. As distinguished 
from what was outside of its precincts, the camp was 
regarded as a holy place ; and the idea of its holiness 
was inculcated by pronouncing those who went out 
unclean, and requiring them to wash before they could 
re-enter. 

The festival of tabernacles as originally instituted, 
presents but little symbolism. Its primary design was 
to give expression to joy and gratitude in view of the 
products of the earth, every kind of which had now 
been gathered ; and it was therefore also called the fes- 
tival of ingathering. 

The requirement that the people should dwell in 
booths made of branches of trees so well accords.with 
the agricultural character of the celebration, that the 
festivities of harvest may have been a primary reason 
for erecting these bowers, and dwelling for the time 
beneath the shade of branches cut from the palm or 



1 Lev. vi. 25, 29. 



INTERPRETATION OF THE CALENDAR. 395 

other beautiful trees, and allowed to retain their foliage 
and fruit. But an opportunity was thus afforded to 
make this joyous festival in the land of promise 
commemorate the experience of the fathers in their 
passage thither from the land of bondage. For though 
the Hebrews dwelt in canvas tents, and not in leafy 
bowers, while on their journey from Egypt to Canaan, 
the booths which their descendants constructed for 
the festivities of harvest were analogous to tents in the 
relation they bore to dwellings built for permanence. 
As related to the ceiled houses which the Hebrews 
occupied in Canaan, the booth and the tent were the 
same ; and therefore, notwithstanding the difference 
between them in material and appearance, the statute 
reads, " Ye shall dwell in booths seven days ; that your 
generations may know that I made the children of 
Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out 
of the land of Egypt." 1 

The festival not only presented in these places of 
temporary sojourn a visible reminder of the manner in 
which the fathers lived when they had no country in 
possession, but furnished opportunity once in seven 
years, in the year of release, for all the people to listen 
to the public reading of the Book of Deuteronomy, so that 
the children, as they came to years of understanding, 
might be acquainted with the history and laws of their 
nation. Though in the intervening years, the book of 
the law was not publicly read, the anniversary must 
have turned the current of thought toward the matters 
rehearsed in the sabbatical year ; so that this festival was 
fitted to bring to recollection not merely the fact that 



1 Lev. xxiii. 42. 



396 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE, 



their fathers dwelt in tabernacles, but all the facts 
connected with the journey from Egypt to Canaan. As 
the passover was a memorial of the deliverance experi- 
enced at the beginning of the journey, so was the feast 
of booths, of life in the wilderness. Nor was the 
connection of such a memorial with the joy of harvest 
arbitrary and forced ; for nothing was more natural than 
to associate in thought the richness of their inheritance 
with the probationary trials by means of which the 
nation had been prepared to possess it. 

It is not known by what authority the pouring of 
water as a drink-offering was introduced as one of the 
ceremonies of this festival ; but the ceremony is in itself 
a joyous recognition of water as one of the blessings 
yielded by the land Jehovah had given them. They 
brought it to his altar, as they did other fruits of the 
land, in grateful acknowledgment of his goodness in 
providing for them such a country. But it would be 
very congruous with, and auxiliary to, such joy and 
gratitude, to remember the scarcity of water in the 
wilderness. In like manner, in regard to every comfort 
the people derived from their inheritance, a compari- 
son of their experience with that which their fathers 
had in the wilderness, as it increased their appre- 
ciation of Canaan, was appropriate to a festival of in- 
gathering. 

Though oil was originally appointed, and always con- 
tinued to symbolize the influence of the Spirit of God, 
and water was never so used in the time of Moses, we 
are assured by the evangelist that our Lord regarded 
the water drawn from the Pool of Siloam, and poured out 
during the festival of booths, as a symbol of the Holy 



INTERPRETATION OF THE CALENDAR. 397 



Spirit. 1 The pouring of water, and the pouring of God's 
Spirit, are associated by Isaiah 2 as if they were parallel 
expressions; one in the dialect of symbolism, and one 
in the dialect of nude spiritualism. So far as can now 
be ascertained, water, as life-sustaining, was first used 
by Isaiah to symbolize the refreshing influence of the 
Spirit of God. In the time of our Lord, its symbolism 
was, as we have seen, so well established that it had 
been incorporated into the temple-service. It was 
much used by him, and is found many times in the 
writings of the evangelist who has interpreted it for 
us as used by our Lord on the sabbath which closed 
not only the festivities of harvest, but the annual cycle of 
festivals. It has its basis in the refreshing influence 
of water on those who are suffering with thirst. To 
such, living water is the water of life not because in 
contrast with stagnant water it seems to be alive, but 
because as a beverage it sustains life. As a means to 
this end it ranks with corn and wine, but was omitted 
from the altar-gifts required by the law of Moses proba- 
bly because the industry of man was not concerned in 
its production. By some means it was afterward intro- 
duced into the ceremonies of the week which reminded 
the people of the riches of their inheritance, and of the 
contrast between their condition and that of their fathers 
when passing through the wilderness. 

1 John vii. 39. The interpretation, given by Jews since the Christian era to the 
symbolic worship of their ancestors, does not often accord with the Christian; 
but a passage in the Jerusalem Talmud is, as Lightfoot observes, worthy of remark, 
which testifies that this ceremony of drawing and pouring water was " because of 
the drawing or pouring-out of the Holy Ghost according to what is said, ' With joy 
shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation » " See Lightfoot's Works, vol. i. 
p. 978. 

2 Ch. xliv. 3. 

34 



398 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

The illumination, by means of which in later times the 
hilarity of this festival was prolonged into the night, we, 
need not take time to interpret ; because, in the first place, 
there is no evidence that the custom originated before 
the tabernacle gave place to the temple, and, in the 
second place, light is so evidently a means of vision, of 
safety, and of enjoyment, that we may regard it as self- 
elucidating. 

It is easy to account for the large increase of burnt- 
offerings during this festival, the kindness of God which 
it commemorated naturally prompting the people to the 
presentation of themselves and their property to him ; 
but no satisfactory reason is apparent to the modern 
student of these symbols why one day was distinguished 
above another, so that the division of the seventy bul- 
locks into seven unequal numbers, arranged in a series 
regularly descending to seven, is an enigma waiting for 
solution. The sum of the series, and the number in 
which it terminates, are, however, even in the present 
state of our knowledge, suggestive. It was appropriate 
to an agricultural festival, that the sacrifices of dedica- 
tion should largely consist of the animal employed in 
the work of tillage. It was equally appropriate that the 
septenary sign usually applied to festivals should not be 
wanting, and that the decimal symbol of completeness 
should be combined with it to distinguish the highest 
festival of the year, 



CHAPTER XVI. 



PROPHETIC SYMBOLS OR TYPES. 

The tabernacle exhibiting the kingdom of God not 
only in the stage of development in which it then existed, 
but as destined to pass into higher stages, was necessa- 
rily prophetic. All its symbols were signs of future 
things either in the sense that the truths they exhibited 
were truths of Christianity, as well as of Mosaism, or in 
the sense that they exhibited truths peculiar to Chris- 
tianity. The institution signified in general that the 
living God removes from penitent sinners the sentence 
of death incurred by transgression of his law, and treats 
them as if they had been obedient, receiving them as 
children to his favor and fellowship. But this theology 
belongs to Christianity as much as to Mosaism, and the 
tabernacle exhibited it as a truth of the future, as well 
as of the time then present. In its relation to Chris- 
tianity, therefore, the tabernacle was a symbol of future 
things, or a type. 

In this sense not only the institution as a whole, but 
also its several elements, were typical ; for Christianity 
contains all the ideas inculcated by Mosaism. When, by 
the slaughter of an animal as a sin-offering, it repre- 
sented that a sinner could live unto God by means of a 
death ; when by the sprinkling of the symbol of life it 

399 



400 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 
I 

represented that the soul of the sinner, having vicari- 
ously passed through death, was now alive unto God, — 
it symbolized truths which are parts of the Christian, as 
well as of the Mosaic system. 

It must be confessed, however, that this conception of 
a type does* not allow it the fulness of significance to 
which it is justly entitled. Strictly, a type symbolizes 
not merely something which is to have existence in 
the future, but something whose existence is only in the 
future. The tabernacle is a type, nevertheless, even in 
this restricted sense ; for as God dwelt in it among the 
Hebrews, so since the incarnation he dwells in Christ as 
a tabernacle of meeting. The sacred tent constructed 
at Sinai represented him as present with the holy 
nation ; but in the temple of Christ's body he is Em- 
manuel to all nations. He is with us as he was with 
them, and for the same ends ; namely, that he may be our 
God and Saviour, providing expiation for our sins, and 
receiving us to his fellowship as members of his house- 
hold. But the Christian tabernacle of meeting is supe- 
rior to that of the Hebrews, as the substance is superior 
to the shadow ; for while the latter is a symbol repre- 
senting in outward forms that God dwells with men as a 
father with his children, Christ is really the manifesta- 
tion of God dwelling with his people, providing for 
them an expiation not symbolic, but real, and admitting 
them to fellowship not in outward forms, but in spirit 
and in truth. Christ is therefore in the Christian sys- 
tem what the tabernacle was a symbol of in the Mosaic. 
It prophesied of him, and was dependent on him for its 
symbolic significance : he is its antitype. Accordingly, 
when, in the fulness of time, the kingdom of God passed 



PROPHETIC SYMBOLS OR TYPES. 401 

from its first to its second stage of development, and 
Christ became the tabernacle of meeting between God 
and men, the reason for maintaining the typical sanctu- 
ary with its typical sacrifices ceased, and it was soon 
allowed to pass away never to be re-established. Our 
Lord recognized expressly the symbolic relation of the 
temple to himself, and implicitly that of the tabernacle, 
when he said, " Destroy this temple, and in three days I 
will raise it up ; " speaking not, as his auditors supposed, 
of the symbol, but of that which it symbolized. 1 

If, then, the edifice of the tabernacle was intended to 
typify the temple of Christ's body in which God mani- 
fests himself to men, in which he meets his people, and 
dwells among them, what can we expect but to find^-here 
and there, throughout the whole system of symbols of 
which this edifice was the nucleus, parts which are 
dependent on the incarnation for their significance ? 
Whether we look first at the bleeding sacrifices of Mosa- 
ism, or at the Lamb of God to which Christianity points, 
we feel sure, as we compare the expiatory provisions of 
the two systems, that the former was intended to fore- 
shadow the latter. The sin-offering of the tabernacle 
signified that, in the temple to be built on the incarna- 
tion of God as a foundation, a sacrifice would be offered 
which, by reason of its inherent efficacy, would need no 
repetition, and would take away whatever necessity 
might have previously existed for symbolic sacrifices. 

In such comparison of one system with the other, we 
have in our day opportunity for discovering types of 
which the ancients were destitute. But, in the evi- 
dent imperfection of some parts of the Mosaic system, 

1 John ii. 21. 

34* 



SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



there was, even before the advent of Christ, reason 
for expecting something better in the future ; that is, for 
understanding these imperfect parts as prophetic of 
something worthy of the whole system in which they 
were contained, and of the mind which devised it. It is 
said that the lowest of vertebrate animals has rudimen- 
tary bones rendering no aid to the mechanism of its 
body, and serving only to connect it with higher classes 
in the same division of the animal kingdom. When only 
the lowest species of the vertebrates existed on the 
earth, the organs they possessed in a rudimentary state 
were prophecies of homologues afterward to appear in 
full development in animals of a higher class. So the 
evidently imperfect expiations which Mosaism provided 
by the death of an animal, and the presentation before 
God of the symbol of its life, foretold a homologous 
provision which would be faultless. 1 At first only a very 
vague conception could be formed of this archetypal 
expiation ; but, as the light of revelation increased from 
age to age, the mystery revealed itself more and more. 
After King David had predicted that one of his descend- 
ants, whom he denominates his lord, should sit as a ruler 
at the right hand of Jehovah, and be a perpetual priest, 
thus, like Melchizedek, uniting the royal and sacerdotal 
offices, a pious Hebrew, believing that David spoke as he 
was moved by the Holy Ghost, had reason to look 
forward to this son of David as a priest who would 
perform the efficacious and complete expiation which the 
blood of bullocks and of goats symbolized, but could not 
accomplish. When Isaiah predicted that the true expia- 
tor would pour out his own soul unto death as an offering 



i Heb. vii. n. 



PROPHETIC SYMBOLS OR TYPES. 403 



for sin, he furnished his countrymen with the means of 
approximating still nearer in their conceptions to the 
archetypal expiation predicted by the sacrifices offered 
in the national sanctuary day by day continually. But 
these sacrifices were as truly prophetic symbols when 
first ordained at Sinai, as afterward when, in the progress 
of revelation, the people of God better understood what 
victim was to die, and what priest was to officiate, in the 
sacrifice to which they pointed. As the ownership of a 
book does not of itself enable the owner to/ead it, so 
the possession of prophetic symbols is not inconsistent 
with ignorance of the future events which they symbol- 
ize. The question is not, How much of the future did 
the Hebrew read in his system of symbolism ? but, Did 
it symbolize future things? Was it such a pattern of 
the kingdom of God that from our stand-point we can 
see that the mind which devised it must have been 
cognizant of the future, and must have designed this 
symbolism as a type of the kingdom in future stages of 
its development ? The earliest vertebrate animal was a 
type of all later and higher species of vertebrates, even 
when these later and higher species existed only in the 
mind of the Creator. Was the Mosaic symbolism in 
like manner typical of Christianity ? Did it include, in 
its representation of the kingdom of God as then devel- 
oped, symbols obviously imperfect and rudimentary, but 
homologous to truths characteristic of Christianity in 
distinction from Mosaism ? 

It is our first task to ascertain, by a comparison of 
Mosaism with Christianity, what symbols employed by the 
former were prophetic. Afterward it may be interesting 
to inquire how much the Hebrews knew, or had in their 



4°4 



SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACIE. 



power to learn, of this anticipative significance. We 
propose, therefore, to review the symbolic apparatus of 
Mosaism for the purpose of pointing out such parts of it 
as were dependent for their full significance on the 
incarnation. In such a search it must not be forgotten 
that the symbols of Mosaism were types in this restricted 
sense only when that which they represented was to 
undergo change. One who regards the Mosaic institu- 
tions as a system of symbols, intended primarily for the 
instruction of the Hebrews in regard to the kingdom of 
God as it then existed, will doubtless find fewer prophetic 
symbols than Lund and other typologists of the school 
which believed that the tabernacle was designed solely 
to symbolize future things. Some of the Hebrew sym- 
bols had no reference to time. What they represented 
was as true in the present as in the future. Incense, 
for example, was a symbol of prayer, but of prayer 
offered while the tabernacle was yet standing, as truly as 
of modern prayer. It was a symbol which contained in 
itself no element of prophecy. Other Hebrew symbols 
were dependent for their full significance on something 
future. We have already seen that the edifice of the 
tabernacle symbolized the habitation of God with men 
and, in its full significance, his habitation with us by 
means of the incarnation. It thus had significance both 
as a symbol and as a type. We shall find that some 
other symbols, in like manner, did not exhaust their 
import in setting forth the kingdom of God as then 
existing in the world, but were laden with additional 
meaning in regard to future things. 



PROPHETIC SYMBOLS OR TYPES. 405 



The edifice of the tabernacle, as we have seen, was 
a type of Christ, in whom God dwells among men as 
their Saviour. But the symbolism of the edifice 
indicates that the people of God are incorporated into 
his holy habitation. The planks of acacia of which its 
walls consisted signified that the twelve tribes of Israel 
were built into the sanctuary. Such symbolism, being 
dependent on the incarnation for its significance, must 
be a prophetic declaration that, when God shall become 
manifest in the flesh, his people shall be incorporated 
into, and become one with, the tabernacle in which he 
shall dwell. In other words, the symbolism of the 
tabernacle included a prophetic symbol of the union of 
Christians with Christ in the temple which God inhabits. 
This union could not take place in its fulness before the 
incarnation. The sanctuary must be built, or believers 
could not be built into it. But the prophetic symbol 
implies that, when God shall manifest himself in the 
flesh, he will dwell not only among, but in his people, — 
implies that the incarnation will be an epoch when a 
new dispensation will commence, differing from the old 
in the more intimate union it establishes between God 
and men, and the more abundant communication of his 
Spirit for which it provides by means of such union. 
The planks of acacia in the tabernacle, and the stones in 
the temple, looked forward to Christianity for their 
archetypes as the fins of a Silurian fish to the arms and 
legs of a man. Without such prospective reference, 
they contribute to the symbolic significance of the 
tabernacle as little as the bones of a fish which are 
homologous to those in the arm of a man, but exist only 
as rudiments, contribute to the mechanism of the animal 



406 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

It is allowed that provision was made whereby, in view 
of the future incarnation, God dwelt in believers before 
the advent of Christ. But Christianity is especially the 
dispensation of the Spirit ; and it is by oneness with 
Christ, by incorporation as living stones into the temple 
founded by the incarnation, that Christians have fellow- 
ship with their heavenly Father. As a representation 
of the kingdom of God after the incarnation, the 
tabernacle presented, in the construction of its walls fitly 
framed together, a type of the union of those who 
believe in Christ with one another to form the spiritual 
temple in which God dwells by his Spirit. 

But if the frame of acacia typified the union of 
believers with each other, after the incarnation, in a 
living temple of sanctified humanity built on Christ as 
a foundation, the division of the enclosed space into two 
apartments represented two stages in the development 
of the kingdom of God, both subsequent to the incarna- 
tion, and one so distant in the future that in this 
eighteenth century after the advent of Christ it has not 
yet been reached. The outer apartment portrayed the 
period between the two advents when men draw near to 
God, and have fellowship with him by faith ; and the inner 
chamber, that eternal state which will be introduced by 
the second coming of Christ, when the veil which now 
hides God from his people shall be removed, and they 
shall see his face. The threefold division of the taber- 
nacle, therefore, is still a prophetic symbol. In the time 
of Moses it prophesied of the two advents of our Lord, 
and their respective influence on the condition of his 
people ; in our time it still typifies the final condition of 
redeemed humanity, when " the tabernacle of God will be 



PROPHETIC SYMBOLS OR TYPES. 407 



with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall 
be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be 
their God ; and God shall wipe away all tears from 
their eyes ; and there shall be no more death, neither 
sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain : 
for the former things are passed away." 1 

The symbolism of form and number in the tabernacle 
foretold the continuance of imperfection in that stage of 
development of the kingdom of heaven when, the expia- 
tion typified in the court having been accomplished, the 
people of God should be permitted to draw near to him 
by faith as members of his family, and the entire 
removal of imperfection in that final state when they 
shall see his face, and dwell with him in a world recon- 
structed so as to be itself faultless, and to shut out all 
physical and spiritual evil. The typical significance 
imparted by the square, the cube, and the decade, as 
employed in the tabernacle, can be comprehended in our 
day only through study of these symbols as used by the 
writer of the Apocalypse, and even in the light so 
reflected is with difficulty comprehended in its fulness ; 
but, the more thoroughly his usage is studied, the more 
clearly will it appear that these symbols as they occur in 
the tabernacle were laden with prophecy. 

If the tabernacle foretold the appearance of God 
manifest in the flesh, that which the priesthood of the 
tabernacle represented could have no reality till after 
the incarnation. In other words, a typical interpretation 
of the edifice necessitates a corresponding reference of the 
symbolism of the priesthood forward to the time of 

1 Rev. xxi. 3, 4. 



408 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



Emmanuel. Moreover, as the edifice typified a person, 
his personality suggests that Emmanuel may be the 
antitype of the priesthood, as well as of the . tabernacle 
itself. The symbolic priesthood represents fellowship 
between God and man ; and no closer fellowship between 
God and man is conceivable than must exist in the case 
of an incarnation. The man in whom God incarnates 
himself may say, " I and the Father are one," with 
deeper significance than any of his brethren of the 
human family. But as the tabernacle typified not only 
the one man in whom God becomes united to humanity, 
but also the union of multitudes of men in that Media- 
tor for a habitation of God, the symbolic priesthood 
requires in its homologue the admission of all the true 
Israel to a similar fellowship. The edifice prophesied 
not only that God would dwell in man, but that the 
whole people of God would be included in that taber- 
nacle of humanity which he was to inhabit. It promised 
that he would dwell with all those who should keep his 
covenant, and remember his commandments to do them. 
Consequently the priesthood of the person in whom 
God was to become manifest in the flesh, implied the 
priesthood of all who should become incorporated into 
him to form the spiritual habitation of God. If he was 
chosen, they were chosen in him ; if he was holy, they 
were called to be holy ; if he was a son, they were ' also 
children ; if he had access, they might draw near to the 
Father. 

But as the people of God could be built into the spir- 
itual temple only as they became united to the man 
in whom God was incarnate, and as God could dwell in 
them only as he dwelt in the Mediator, their fellowship 



PROPHETIC SYMBOLS OR TYPES. 409 

with him, though of a similar, might not be of the 
same nature. In Emmanuel, God was to be united to 
man in a personal union ; but he was to be united 
to other men only mediately through Emmanuel ; and 
this difference of union might be expected to effect some 
diversity in the mode and degree of his fellowship with 
them. Such a diversity was foreshadowed not only 
in the subordinate relation of the planks of acacia to 
the edifice into which they were incorporated, but in the 
subordination of the priestly nation to the family of 
Aaron. The Hebrews were all priests, and entitled to 
draw near to God ; but Aaron and his posterity were 
chosen to a closer fellowship than other Hebrews. In 
like manner all Christians are children of God, and as 
such have access to their Father ; but Christ is the Son 
of God in a peculiar sense, and as such united to him in 
the closest union conceivable. 

The priesthood of the priestly nation was not a type 
in the restricted sense in which we are using the word ; 
for it did not foreshadow any peculiarity of Christianity, 
but symbolized what was true alike before and after the 
advent of Christ, namely, the fellowship to which God 
admits his people by means of a Mediator. The priest- 
hood of the family of Aaron, however, was prophetic in 
its symbolism, representing that which was yet future, 
and contingent on the appearance of the \ person sym- 
bolized. The expiation wrought by them in symbol 
foretold an efficient expiation; and their privilege of 
immediate access to Jehovah, while their brethren could 
approach only through their mediation, symbolized a 
fellowship with God close* than that which was sym- 
bolized by the priesthood of the nation, — closer . indeed, 
35 



410 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

than was possible before the incarnation, and possible 
now only to the man Christ Jesus. 

It becomes necessary, therefore, to examine in detail 
the symbolism of the Hebrew priesthood, that we may 
discover wherein it was prophetic. We have already 
interpreted it as representing the expiation of sin, and 
the fellowship with God consequent thereon. So much 
it represents before the element of time is taken into 
account. But now we propose to show that it prefigured 
the expiation made by Christ, the admission of those who 
receive him as their priest to fellowship with God through 
him, and the still closer fellowship between him and the 
Father. 

If, then, reversing the order in which these speci- 
fications have been mentioned, we first compare the 
eminence of the sacerdotal family above other Hebrews 
in the privilege of access to Jehovah with the eminence 
of Christ over Christians in union with God, we find 
that in this respect the two dispensations are evidently 
homologous by design, and that Mosaism^ in distinction 
from Christianity, has nothing which this eminence of 
the priestly family over the priestly nation could repre- 
sent. Apart from Christianity, this eminence of Aaron 
is without meaning, but, as a type, most expressively 
symbolizes the peculiar Sonship of Christ as it differs 
from the filial relation into which he introduces those 
that receive him. The Hebrews had access to Jehovah 
only through the family of Aaron : so, in our time, the 
children of God have fellowship with their Father, but 
he comes to them in Christ, and they approach him 
through the same Mediator** Aaron and his family, on 
the contrary, had no need of a mediator, but entered 



PROPHETIC SYMBOLS OR TYPES. 411 

the habitation of Jehovah as members of his household, 
and were employed by him as his representatives in 
transacting with their brethren: so Christ enjoys a 
unique intimacy with the Father, and is exalted as 
a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance to Israel, and 
forgiveness of sins. 

But the eminence of the Hebrew priests above their 
brethren corresponds with the eminence of Christ above 
other children of God in more respects than that which 
has been mentioned. All Hebrews were required to 
keep themselves separate from unclean things as a 
condition of approaching the altar ; but the priests were 
restrained within narrower limits than their brethren, as 
if to symbolize a higher degree of holiness; and the 
high-priest was still more restricted in his liberty of 
contact with the effects of sin, in order to represent a 
superlative sanctity. This gradation in formal holiness 
was doubtless designed to teach that ethical purity was 
necessary in all who were admitted to fellowship with 
God. It inculcated upon the Hebrew, as we have already 
seen, that without holiness of heart and life he could 
not stand in the filial relation to God, pictured in the 
office of the priesthood. But if the priesthood is not only 
a symbol, but a prophetic symbol, announcing beforehand 
the advent of a man whose fellowship with God should 
be superlatively intimate, this requirement of outward 
cleanness in the symbol does not exhaust its meaning in 
declaring that all the children of God must be holy, but 
includes in its full significance a declaration that the 
Son of God, whom Aaron and his family foreshadowed, 
would exemplify the superlative holiness symbolized in 
the chief of the sacerdotal order. Auxiliary to this 



412 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

representation that the archetypal priest would be unde- 
fined with sin, was the exclusion from the altar of 
every descendant of Aaron who had any physical defect. 
A Hebrew priest could not perform the functions of 
his office unless he was able to typify, by means of a 
faultless body, the sinlessness which was to characterize 
the priest of the new covenant. The representation of 
Emmanuel's holiness was still further cumulative by 
means of the white linen in the sacerdotal garments, 
the integrity of the several pieces woven without 
seam, and no longer used if rent, and the inscription 
Holiness to Jehovah, with which the chief of the 
priesthood was crowned. It culminated in the sinless- 
ness of the high-priest by the expiation of his own sins, 
before he could officiate on the day of atonement in 
taking away the sins of the people. 

The dress of the subordinate priests, though chiefly 
suggestive of holiness, contained in the colors of the 
girdle, signs of other attributes of the antitype ; but, as 
the same colors are found in profusion in the costume 
of the high-priest, it is preferable to pass at once to the 
garments worn by him in addition to the garments of 
holiness common to him and his subordinates. Of the 
vestments peculiar to the high-priest, the first to be 
put on signified by its color that the holy person whom 
the wearer typified was also heavenly. Apart from the 
prospective reference to Christ, it seems inappropriate 
and extravagant that the robe of the ephod should be of 
cerulean blue to the exclusion of the other colors of the 
tabernacle. The hue of heaven might appropriately be 
mingled with the white, the purple, and the red, as in 
other parts of the symbolism, to authenticate a priest of 



PROPHETIC SYMBOLS OR TYPES. 413 

earthly origin as a minister of the heavenly institution ; 
but a robe of blue extending from the neck to the calf of 
the leg, is more satisfactorily emptied of its significance, 
when we find that it symbolizes a priest who is not 
of the earth, earthy, but the Lord from heaven. The 
ornaments suspended from the robe well accord with 
such prospective reference, for they signify that the 
priest who is to come from heaven will obey and pro- 
claim the word of God. 

The ephod, as a shoulder-garment and girdle, was 
intrinsically a badge of rank and power ; but its impress- 
iveness was enhanced to the highest possible degree by 
the splendor and symbolic power of the colors combined 
in its material, the beauty and significance of flowers 
wrought into its web by the skill of the weaver, and the 
magnificence of the two onyx-stones fixed upon its 
shoulder-pieces as emblems of royalty. The colors were 
all appropriate to the King of Israel as holy, heavenly, 
living, and life-imparting ; but the regal purple was 
entirely synonymous with the ephod itself. It set forth 
to view what was, indeed, implied in priesthood, the high 
rank and authority of the person who should be in such 
intimate relation with the king. A priest is one who is 
privileged to approach God as a member of his family, 
and is authorized to deal with men in the name of God. 
The conception implies that God is a king, and that the 
priest is of the royal household. A king might, indeed, 
receive into his family as a son, and employ in transac- 
tions with his subjects, a confidential officer who was not 
of his own blood ; but the person whom he would most 
naturally appoint to approach unto him in his habitation, 
and transact for him with his subjects, is his only-begot- 

35* 



4i 4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



ten son. The conception can rise to this ideal, and can 
rise no higher. The purple of the ephod, as well as the 
ephod itself, attributed to Christ a relation to. God similar 
to that which the beloved son of a king sustains to his 
father. It was a sign that he would enjoy the favor of 
God, and a be clothed with administrative authority. The 
breastplate attached to the ephod, had typical significance 
which will be more appropriately interpreted hereafter. 
At present, we only take notice of the fact that it was 
worn by the high-priest alone, and assisted to distinguish 
him as superior to his brethren. Whatever else it 
typified, it foretold the superiority of Christ in the king- 
dom of God, and, as an attachment of the ephod, 
superiority by reason of the office which the ephod indi- 
cated. The ephod as a whole exhausts the resources of 
symbolism to express the glory of Christ. 

As the turbans of the subordinate priests were for 
glory and beauty, we may infer that the high-priest wore 
one of different shape to indicate a still higher degree of 
rank, and that no other shape could have exalted him 
more than the appointed pattern. But, even if such an 
inference is of doubtful validity, the crown of gold 
fastened to the turban was certainly a mark of supe- 
riority. In examining the symbolism of the robe of the 
ephod, and of the ephod, we were purposely silent con- 
cerning the ornaments of gold attached to both vest- 
ments, and the golden thread wrought into the web of 
the latter, that this metal might be mentioned only once, 
and in connection with the turban, where its significance 
culminates in a crown. Always in ancient time signifi- 
cant of high rank, it was here specific in its meaning, de- 
claring the regal rank of the priest as a son of the king. 



PROPHETIC SYMBOLS OR TYPES. 415 

The principal ceremony in the consecration of the 
priests consisted in anointing them with oil ; the unction 
being more copious in the case of Aaron, because he was 
the chief of the order. The ceremony signifying in the 
first place that the persons anointed would have the help 
of the Holy Spirit in the discharge of official duty, 
according to the measure of their need, also foretold that 
The Messiah, The Christ, The Anointed, would be 
likewise qualified for the work his Father had given him 
to do. 

The eminence of the Hebrew priests over other 
Hebrews in all these particulars typified the superiority 
of Christ over his church. It announced that they 
should be holy, but he immaculate ; that they should be 
heirs of a heavenly inheritance, but he the Lord from 
heaven, by whose generous impartation they are co-heirs 
with him; that they should be children of a king, 
but he the first-born son; that they should possess 
the prerogatives of such relationship, but that in all 
things he should have the pre-eminence; that they 
should enjoy intimacy with God, but that he should be 
one with the Father to a degree attainable by him alone ; 
that they should receive the Holy Spirit to cheer and 
strengthen them for their work, but that he should be 
anointed with "the oil of gladness" above his fellows. 

As such eminence of Christ over his church implies 
that those for whom he acts as priest partake with him, 
in an inferior degree, of that in which he is their superior, 
we need not retrace our steps through the symbolism of 
the priesthood to show how it represents believers in 
Christ as saints, as children of God, as having access 
to the Father, as heirs of his kingdom, as having received 



41 6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



the Holy Spirit. We will only revert to that vestment 
of the high-priest which was but partially interpreted. 
The breastplate is not only a badge of Christ's supe- 
riority, but a sign that he is superior for the reason that 
he can and does elevate to a participation with himself 
in his regal dignity as the Son of God, all those in whose 
behalf he presents himself in the presence of the Father. 
As the breastplate represented the twelve tribes of 
Israel, and, by its attachment to the ephod, the oneness 
of Israel with Aaron, so it typified the church of the 
new covenant, and its participation with its Mediator in 
all that the ephod foretold of his glory. The symbol 
prophesied that Christians should be partakers with 
Christ in his honors and prerogatives, and at the same 
time dependent on their union with him for such partici- 
pation, — should sit with him on his throne, enjoying in 
the execution of his will the accomplishment of their 
own. In other words, it signified that he would give 
power to as many as received him, to become the sons 
of God. 

The New Testament teaches expressly that the Hebrew 
priest, in the atonements he made with the blood of sacri- 
fices, was a type of Christ, taking away sin by a homol- 
ogous procedure. There is also in the language it 
employs in describing the redemption which is in Christ 
Jesus, such a tang of the Mosaic symbols as reminds the 
hearer of the place of sacrifice, the altar, the priest, 
the faultless lamb, the vicarious death, and the sprinkling 
of blood. On closer inspection the correspondence is 
found to extend beyond the terms employed ; for the two 
transactions resemble one another so much in the end 
sought, the means used, and the mediatorial position of 



PROPHETIC SYMBOLS OR TYPES. 417 

the expiator, as to justify the belief on this ground alone 
that the Levitical atonement was designedly so shaped 
as to foreshadow that of Christ. There was nothing in 
Mosaism, as distinguished from Christianity, to which the 
symbol could refer ; but it corresponds with the expiation 
wrought by the High-Priest of the Christian profession 
as face answers to face in water. The typical signifi- 
cance of the Hebrew priests as expiators cannot be 
satisfactorily interpreted, however, without taking into 
consideration the correlative meaning of the sacrifices 
they offered. But as the Scriptures testify that the 
sin-offerings of the tabernacle were types of the sacrifice 
which Christ offered, not less explicitly than that the 
priesthood typified him as the Mediator appointed to 
make expiation for the sins of the world, we may take 
for granted that both were typical ; and, since Christ 
obtained eternal redemption for us with his own blood, 
that both types found their antitypes in him. He was 
both priest and sacrifice, and in this double capacity was 
the future object symbolized by all the priests and all the 
sacrifices of the tabernacle. The Hebrew priest, as 
the authorized mediator between Jehovah and the person 
who brought a sin-offering, prefigured Christ. Presiding 
at the sacrifice as the representative of the King whose 
law had been violated, the priest brought the blood, as a 
symbol of the life of the person redeemed with the life 
of the sacrificial animal, to the immediate presence of the 
King, in accordance with his direction, to signify that 
the transgressor himself might now draw near ; and the 
chief of the order carried this symbolism to its highest 
power of expression when, once in a year, he carried the 
symbol of life to the holiest spot of Jehovah's dwelling 



4 i8 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

where, if anywhere, the heavenly King could not be 
approached by sinners, and there found him on a throne 
of grace ready to forgive as soon as the demands of jus- 
tice would permit. All this mediatorial function of the 
priesthood found its antitype in Christ ; who, having by 
the appointment of his Father obtained eternal redemp- 
tion for us, entered into heaven, the greater and more 
perfect dwelling of God, not with the blood of bullocks 
and of goats, but with his own blood. Type and antitype 
are correspondent in official position, in the end sought, 
and in the means employed. 

Even if the New Testament had not so expressly 
affirmed that Christ is the antitype of the Hebrew 
sacrifices, it might be legitimately inferred that he is, 
from the premises that the edifice of the tabernacle 
typified his appearance on the earth as God manifest in 
the flesh ; that its priesthood prefigured his mediatorial 
work as the Saviour of sinners ; that as a priest he must 
needs have somewhat to offer ; and that, in the ritual 
of the symbolic sacrifices, there was a representation of 
God accepting sinners as deserving to live because 
another life had been surrendered instead of the life of 
the sinner. If Emmanuel is to make the sinner's peace 
with God by the presentation of another life surrendered 
instead of the life of the sinner, whose life can it be but 
his own ? If the edifice foretold the appearance of a man 
who should be the tabernacle of God, if its priesthood was 
a type of the same man offering to God a sin-offering for 
the sins of the world, where can we look but to this* 
Divine Redeemer himself for the antitype of the sin- 
offering, and of the symbol of life which it furnished by 



PROPHETIC SYMBOLS OR TYPES. 



419 



passing through death ? Without an express indication 
of Christ as the Lamb of God which taketh away the 
sin of the world, we might discover that the expiation 
of which Moses wrote in the symbols of the tabernacle, 
was to be accomplished by means of his death. 

If the tabernacle was a type of Emmanuel, it follows 
that its sacrifices, as well as its priesthood, were depen- 
dent on his appearance for the realization of that which 
they symbolized. The symbolic atonements being per- 
formed in an edifice which foretold the habitation of 
God in man, the real atonement could not take place 
till the temple of flesh which it typified had been 
prepared. The typical edifice, however, as an edifice, 
merely pointed forward to the advent of God manifest 
in the flesh as a necessary preliminary to the real expia- 
tion, without indicating by what means or in what 
manner sin was to be covered. But the sacrifices being 
symbolic, as well as the edifice itself, furnished in their 
symbolism suggestions in regard to the manner in which 
sinners were to be delivered from death, and become, as 
if by a new birth, sons of God. The vicarious death of 
an animal typified some other and more worthy substi- 
tute to be provided by God when he should appear in 
the flesh ; and the impossibility of finding such a substi- 
tute elsewhere than in Emmanuel himself pointed to 
him as the Lamb of God provided not to expiate the 
sin of an individual, but of the world. 

Comparing the symbolic sacrifices with the offering 
which Christ made of himself, we find that the former 
prefigured the latter as a gift. The Hebrew who 
sacrificed gave something which was his own to God. 
To bring to the altar what did not belong to him, would 



SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



empty the rite of its customary and appointed signifi- 
cance. Moreover, the Hebrew was allowed to give only 
certain kinds of property to be laid on the altar. The 
gift must be something which, if retained by him, would 
have been a source of enjoyment ; it must be something 
representing his life both as a means and an end. In 
the case of animal sacrifices (and no others could be 
brought for the remission of sin), a substitution was 
represented by the imposition of hands ; so that the gift 
stood in the place of the giver, and died in his stead. 
The animal thus given as a substitute must be in the 
most vigorous period of its life, and have no defect. In 
all these particulars Christ as a sacrifice corresponded 
with the symbol. The Lamb of God which taketh away 
the sin of the world, though delivered to death in 
accordance with the determinate counsel of God, and 
slain by the hands of wicked men, was not an involuntary 
victim, but " has given himself for us an offering and a 
sacrifice to God." " He loved the church, and gave 
himself for it." He gave himself to death as a Hebrew 
devoted his lamb, his kid, or his bullock. In so doing 
he realized the highest ideal of sacrifice as an act of 
giving, surrendering whatever there might be to pursue 
and to enjoy in life, as well as life itself. He gave himself 
to die, as the substitute or ransom of those for whom he 
was a sacrifice. By the fulness and vigor of his right- 
eousness, he was qualified thus to deliver sinners by 
means of a vicarious death, since he had no sins of his 
own for which to answer. 

Every sacrifice, of whatever kind, was a gift ; but the 
burnt-offering was eminently significant of giving, and 
signified in particular self-surrender. In this species, 



PROPHETIC SYMBOLS OR TYPES. 421 

then, more than in the others, we find a type'of Chiist's 
sacrifice as a gift of himself. The Hebrew gave the 
domestic animal he had reared and loved, to be wholly 
consumed on the altar ; and Christ unreservedly devoted 
himself, saying in effect, Since the symbol is ineffectual 
without that which it prefigures, lo, I come to do thy 
will, O God. But, if the burnt-offering was peculiarly 
representative of Christ's devotion of himself, every 
other species was also in some way peculiarly significant. 
The food-offering, for example, accompanying a holo- 
caust to signify that the offerer's gift of himself included 
the consecration of his labor, foretold, as a prophetic 
symbol, that Christ would not only surrender his life, but 
diligently engage in whatever activity his office might 
require. The sin-offering was a type of Christ dying 
for sinners, that they, constructively dying with him in 
his death, might actually live with him in his resumption 
of life. The peace-offerings, which furnished to the 
people of the old covenant means of fellowship with 
God, find their antitype in the one offering whose flesh 
has feasted more of the children of God than any sym- 
bolic sacrifice, and with more satisfying food. 

The prominence given in the New Testament to the 
death of Christ as a sacrifice for sin, requires a more 
comprehensive examination of the Mosaic sin-offering, 
with reference to its typical relation to that event, than 
it is necessary to apply to the other species. We quit 
them, therefore, after the brief indication given in the 
last paragraph of their typical significance, to compare 
the Hebrew sin-offering with its Christian antitype. 
• The symbolic sin-offering prefigured, in the purpose 
for which it was offered, the death of Christ. The cover- 
36 



422 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



ing of sin 'was the end to be secured by means of the 
Mosaic sin-offering ; and Christ died for the same pur- 
pose. From the later books of the Old Testament, it is 
evident that the inspired men who wrote them expected 
that Messiah would die for the expiation of sin, as the 
lamb of a sin-offering was slaughtered for that purpose at 
the side of the altar. 1 The writers of the New Testa- 
ment say of Christ that God hath set him forth " to be a 
propitiation through faith in his blood ; " 2 that " he is the 
propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also 
for the sins of the whole world ; " 3 that " while we were 
yet sinners, Christ died for us ; " 4 that " he died for the 
ungodly ; " 5 that " he died for all ; " 6 that " he died for 
our sins;" 7 that "we have redemption through his 
blood, even the forgiveness of sins ; " 8 that we were 
" redeemed with the precious blood of. Christ, as of a 
lamb without blemish and without spot ; " 9 that " he 
washed us from our sins in his own blood ; " 10 that " his 
blood cleanseth us from all sin ; " 11 that " we are sancti- 
fied through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once 
for all ; " 12 that " he was manifested to take away our 
sins ; " 13 that " he is the Lamb of God which taketh 
away the sin of the world ; " 14 that " he bare our sins in 
his own body on the tree ; " 15 that " he was once offered 
to bear the sins of many ; " 16 and by so doing manifest 
their opinion that the death of Christ corresponded in 

1 Isaiah (ch. liii.)not only predicts that Messiah will die as an expiatory sacrifice 

but, in amplifying' his subject, employs in detail technical terms applicable only to 
a sin-offering. 

2 Rom. iii. 25. 3 1 John ii. 2. 4 Rom. v. 8. 

5 Rom. v. 6. 6 2 Cor. v. 1 5. »i Cor. xv. 3. 

8 Col. i. 14. 9 1 Pet. i. 19. 10 Rev. i. 5. 

11 1 John i. 7. 12 Heb. x. 10. 13 x John iii. 5. 

14 John i. 29. 1 5 1 Pet. ii. 24. 16 Heb. ix. 28. 



PROPHETIC SYMBOLS OR TYPES. 423 

its purpose with the sin-offerings prescribed by the law 
of Moses. 

The sprinkling of blood in the ritual of the sin-offering 
prefigured the presentation before the Father of those 
whom Christ redeemed with his life, as deserving to live 
on account of his vicarious death, and the Father's 
acceptance of the plea. Apart from its typical reference 
to Christ, the presentation of the blood of the animal to 
Jehovah by his direction, in the place where he dwelt 
with his people, symbolized the restoration to filial 
privileges of the person who, having vicariously died in 
the death of the sin-offering, has by that means risen 
again to a new life, in which he is allowed to be intimate 
with God. The blood as a symbol of life was a sign 
that the person for whom it had been shed was alive 
unto God. As a type, however, it signified more than 
as a mere symbol. As a symbol of the life of the animal, 
it had no meaning except as transferred from the proxy 
to the principal : as a type, it was capable of a broader 
significance ; for as the Lamb of God, though truly dying 
for sinners, could not be holden by death, since he is 
divine as well as human, the blood of every symbolic 
sacrifice typified the life of the Redeemer, as well as of 
the redeemed. In the archetypal sacrifice, the principal 
and the proxy are one not only in the sacrificial death, 
but in the resurrection. It was because the Lamb of 
God, though slain, still lived that his death availed to 
redeem those for whom he died. A mere animal or a 
mere man would have been an insufficient ransom. The 
exigency required a Redeemer who could not die except 
by his own voluntary submission, and, having thus died, 
could not be holden in death. Only by the vicarious 



424 SIGNIFICANCE. OF THE TABERNACLE. 



death of such a Lamb could sinners rise to a life of 
acceptance and fellowship with God. In his life they 
live : if he is not risen, his death was an insufficient 
ransom, and they are yet under condemnation. But the 
new life of the proxy, as well as of the principal, was 
typified by the blood of the symbolic sacrifices presented 
before Jehovah. Perhaps we might more accurately say 
that the blood typified the life of the mystic body of 
which the Redeemer is the head, and every believer is a 
member ; for the life of the redeemed is an organic life, 
derived from and inseparable from the life of Emmanuel. 
In Christ, and in Christ only, has the blood of the Mosaic, 
sin-offering found its significance exhausted. It was a 
sign that he should not only die, but live again, and that 
his church, redeemed by the surrender of his life, should 
live with him. 

The Mosaic sin-offering prefigures, in its substitution 
of one life for another, the sacrifice of Christ. By 
divine direction the offerer brought a lamb to the priest, 
and by the imposition of hands imparted to it the power 
to be his representative, and die in his stead : its blood 
was accordingly received and acknowledged by Jehovah 
as the blood, or life of a person who, having transgressed 
the law, had satisfied its penal demands, and was there- 
fore entitled to live. By the appointment of God, Christ 
was delivered for our offences, and rose again for our 
justification. Having died as a sin-offering, he resumed 
the life he had laid down, ascended into heaven, and 
there remains to plead that those whom by the appoint- 
ment of his Father he ransomed with his life, have a 
right to live. The correspondence is complete in all 
particulars, except in regard to the person who pro- 



PROPHETIC SYMBOLS OR TYPES. 425 



vides the substitute. The Hebrew was symbolically 
redeemed with the blood of one of his own lambs ; but 
the animal was so inadequate, and the entire resources 
of the sinner were so inadequate as a price of redemp- 
tion, that faith in the symbolic sacrifice must have been 
faith in it as a symbol of an adequate substitute to be 
provided by God. The inadequacy of the animal as a 
price of redemption showed that the substitution of it 
was only a rudiment of the homologous provision which 
would appear in the antitype. 

The Mosaic sin-offering, as a manifestation of the jus- 
tice of God, was a type of Christ's sacrifice of himself. 
The ritual of the symbolic expiation represented Jeho- 
vah as a God of justice, as well as of grace; forgiving 
the sins of his people, but demanding, as a condition of 
their justification, that the authority of the violated law 
should be as fully sustained as if they had suffered its 
penalty. The vindication of law prefigured in symbol 
became a historic verity when the blood of Christ was 
shed for the remission of sins. By virtue of the sin- 
offering thus set forth, God could be just, and justify 
him that believeth in Jesus. 

The Mosaic sin-offering was also, in its manifestation 
of the love of God, a type of the sacrifice of Christ. 
Its correspondence with its antitype in this respect 
was very imperfect, but it did nevertheless reveal 
Jehovah as a God of love ; for the expiation was made 
by his appointment, and the institution of such a ritual 
represented that he- desired to forgive, and would do so 
when consistent with justice. Its symbolism spoke not 
only of a vicarious death which would render forgiveness 
consistent with his rectitude, but of the vicarious death 
36* 



426 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

of such a substitute as he only could provide. The 
symbol was, indeed, as a manifestation of love, but a 
rudiment in comparison with the sacrifice it prefigured ; 
for the cross of Christ reveals that God so loved the 
world that he gave his only-begotten Son that whosoever 
believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting 
life. 

The Mosaic sin-offering, in its influence on the person 
' expiated y also prefigured the sacrifice of Christ. It 
comforted the penitent Hebrew with the assurance of 
forgiveness, inspired him with courage and strength for 
present duties, and brightened his future with the hope 
of salvation. In like manner the cross of Christ 
imparts to the believer comfort, courage, strength, and 
hope. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



EXTENT TO WHICH THE HEBREWS COMPREHENDED THE 
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

The tabernacle, as a representation of the system of 
religious truth revealed through Moses, was designed for 
the instruction of the whole people. There was no 
esoteric class, as there was among the Egyptians, having 
exclusive possession of the key of knowledge, but all the # 
holy nation were allowed and encouraged to study 
the oracles of God committed to them in the symbolic 
institutions. But though the symbols were designed for 
the instruction of all, and were intelligible in some 
degree to the poorest in intellectual endowments and 
acquisitions, even the wisest must have failed to see the 
whole truth represented. With equal desire to learn, 
and equal diligence in study, there would be different 
degrees of attainment; but the foremost of all would 
find the limit of his capacity before he had seen in the 
symbols all they imported to their Author ; if for no 
other reason, because, as the tabernacle symbolized the 
habitation of the Infinite One with men, only infinite 
intelligence could completely comprehend such a propo- 
sition. A revelation of God, natural or supernatural, 
requires men to think of a Being who transcends the 

limit of human thought ; and the revelation conveyed by 

427 



428 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

the symbols of the tabernacle was no exception to the 
rule. 

Other causes besides the finite nature of man limited 
the ability of the Hebrew to read the symbols of the 
tabernacle. So far as they were prophetic, it was not 
designed that they should convey their significance as 
clearly before the prophecy was fulfilled as afterward. 
Obscurity covered the types of the tabernacle with a 
veil, as clouds sometimes obscure the . sun. This 
obscurity was not so thick as to conceal the meaning 
of the types from all, but was so graduated as to furnish 
a test of character, allowing those who, from sympathy 
with the Author of the symbolic system, earnestly 
desired to know his meaning, to discover it through the 
veil, and at the same time hiding it from those who 
were indifferent or prejudiced. For example : there were 
in the symbolic priesthood and sacrifices, intimations 
that Messiah would be the true Expiator and the true 
expiation ; but these intimations were discovered only by 
persons who were spiritual, in distinction from worldly. 
Such persons endeavored to look through the visible things 
of the tabernacle to the invisible things portrayed. They 
were sensitive in regard to sin, and longed for the salva- 
tion and the Saviour promised in the symbols. They 
earnestly desired that Jehovah should forgive, and do it 
consistently with rectitude. With such feelings, they 
were more easily led to appreciate the typology of the 
priesthood, and of the sin-offering, than persons who 
cared for none of these things. 

An apostle attributes to such subjective differences, 
the opposite opinions of the contemporaries of Jesus in 
regard to his claim to the Messiahship. The worldly, 



HOW FAR COMPREHENDED BY HEBREWS. 429 

through indifference to the evil of sin, and hostility to 
God's method of expiating it, had overlooked the predic- 
tions that Messiah would die as an offering for sin. In 
their pride of race, they fixed their attention on the 
prophecies concerning Messiah as a king, and would 
listen to no intimations which seemed to detract from 
the grandeur of his regal state. Consequently, they 
set their wisdom against the hidden wisdom of God, 
which if they had known, they would not have crucified 
the Lord of glory. Even when the true interpretation 
was pointed out by the apostle, they rejected it, for the 
reason that nothing in the state of their feelings taught 
them the need of a suffering and dying Messiah. Such 
an interpretation as made their sacrifices and their 
"priests prefigure Jesus of Nazareth and him crucified, 
was foolishness to their apprehension, because they 
lacked the spirituality which appreciates the cross as a 
remedy for sin. 1 

The veil of obscurity which covered the prophetic 
symbols not only permitted the worldly to live in igno- 
rance of that which the spiritual discovered, but concealed 
even from the latter class much of the significance which 
the types are seen to contain when examined in the light 
of subsequent history. We may believe that Moses, as a 
man of spirituality, discovered in the symbols of the 
tabernacle prophecies of the one sacrifice and the one 
priest whom they symbolized ; but we cannot believe 
that by any thing short of a supernatural communication 
he could acquire so clear and comprehensive a conception 
of the historical Christ as is vouchsafed to those who 
live under the new covenant. He doubtless, like other 



1 1 Cor. ii. 6-16. 



43© SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



prophets of the Old Testament, searched diligently to 
know the full meaning of the prophecies which God 
communicated through him, and the time of their fulfil- 
ment ; perhaps he learned all which could then be 
learned from the prophecies themselves : but the prophe- 
cies did not attempt to reveal Christ to the ancient 
Hebrews as clearly and fully as he has been revealed in 
history. The degree of obscurity necessary as a test of 
character, and as a condition of securing the fulfilment, 
by means of wicked hands, of the determinate counsel of 
God, rendered it impossible to take away, entirely, even 
from the most spiritual of the Hebrews, the veil which 
ordinarily covers the future. 

Could the Hebrews, then, read the symbols of the 
tabernacle with no other limitations than are imposed by 
the finite nature of man, and the necessity of concealing 
from him the future ? The question admits of different 
answers according as it is understood to ask whether he 
was able to master the national symbolism so as to see 
in it all the significance it was designed to convey, or 
whether he had actually done so. In answer to the first 
of these questions, it may be maintained that religious 
truth could be communicated as intelligibly through 
symbols as by alphabetic writing. Doubtless, some 
modern languages would be superior for such a purpose 
to any system of symbolization ; but the thesis is, that 
the Hebrew symbolism was equal to Hebrew manuscript 
as a vehicle of such ideas as were taught in Mosaism. 
What is there, then, in the characters of the alphabet 
to render them more apt for the inculcation of religious 
truth than the visible objects men have learned from 
nature, or from one another, to regard as symbols of 



HOW FAR COMPREHENDED BY HEBREWS. 431 



things which cannot be seen ? An alphabet is itself a 
system of symbols, and differs from the religious symbol- 
ism of antiquity in employing signs arbitrarily chosen, 
rather than such as have an antecedent correspondence 
with the things signified. The more numerous combina- 
tions for which it provides may render it capable of 
exhibiting religious truth with more fulness of detail, and 
exactness of representation, to a people who have long 
employed it for such and similar purposes; but the 
Hebrew tongue was spoken by a people who never 
achieved more than scanty progress in literature, and at 
the time of the exodus were generally unable to write or 
read. For such improvement in its capability of express- 
ing thought as it gradually attained after the settlement 
in Canaan, it was largely indebted to the symbolism of 
the national worship, which enabled poets and prophets 
to transfer the names of symbols to correspondent ideas 
in the realm of the invisible. 

Symbolism, being in itself not inferior to manuscript 
as an instrument, was peculiarly adapted to the stage of 
development which the Hebrews had reached. A higher 
degree of literary culture would have dwarfed the faculty 
of intuition which enabled them to interpret it with ease 
and pleasure. In the ability to interpret symbolism, they 
were superior to the most cultivated nations of modern 
times by reason of their quick-sightedness in discerning 
correspondences between the visible and the invisible. 
A natural aptitude for reading symbolism would of course 
increase by use ; and the presence of such a system as 
confronted the Hebrews from childhood onward to the end 
of life must have educated them to a far higher ability 
than they had received by natural endowment : so that 



432 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



we may conclude that they were as well able to interpret 
the tabernacle as the people of modern times the printed 
pages of the New Testament. 

The conditions which limited the Hebrew were such 
as restrict the Christian in the interpretation of the 
Scriptures. Mosaism, as exhibited in the symbolism of 
the tabernacle, not only presented ideas which in them- 
selves surpass the power of man to receive in their 
completeness, but was so large in its scope, and so 
comprehensive in its details, that none could completely 
master the subject, and see in every symbol the fulness 
of meaning it would reveal if made a special study. A 
narrower precinct than that which confines one to 
the knowable, limited every individual Hebrew in the 
interpretation of the tabernacle. Christian theologians 
do not claim that they have seen the full significance of 
the Scriptures. Some of them have made a specialty 
of a particular book, and, after all their studies, would 
doubtless admit that more light might still be thrown 
upon the small field they have spent years to investigate* 
Probably no devout Hebrew supposed he had exhausted 
even a small segment of the symbolism by means of 
which Jehovah had chosen to make known his ways. 
Surely no one pretended that he could survey the whole 
system with particularity and exactness of knowledge. 
Every student, however diligent, would find, sooner or 
later, in the limitation of his own individual intellect, a 
limit to his ability to interpret the tabernacle. 

The Hebrew was also limited, in his ability to read the 
symbolism of the tabernacle, according to his opportu- 
nities for study. The majority were much occupied with 
the cares of life, and received religious instruction chiefly 



HOW FAR COMPREHENDED BY HEBREWS. 433 



from the lips of those who had more leisure to study. 
As early as the time of Moses, we find the tribe of Levi 
charged with the duty of teaching ; 1 and there are 
records concerning the reigns of Jehoshaphat and Josiah 
which imply that teaching was still a function of the 
tribe. 2 Naturally, the Levites would be in advance of 
men of other tribes in the knowledge of the national 
symbolism for the same reason that Christian teachers 
usually understand the Scriptures better than those 
whom they instruct. 

The most important condition which limited the 
Hebrew in his interpretation of the tabernacle was 
the measure of his spirituality. A worldly-minded man, 
however powerful and active his intellect, cannot know 
the things of God ; for, being spiritually discerned, they 
can be revealed only to the spiritual. One who loves the 
truth so far as already discovered, and allows it to enter 
into his experience, is in the attitude requisite for 
learning ; but he who holds the truth in unrighteousness 
labors under a disadvantage in the prosecution of further 
inquiry similar to that under which a deaf man studies 
music, or a blind man the harmony of colors. Never 
having experienced godly sorrow for sin, he cannot 
comprehend it ; never having felt the grateful love of 
those who have been forgiven, he cannot appreciate as 
they do the wonderful love which expiates sin. 

The ability of the Hebrews to interpret the tabernacle 
being subject to conditions such as limit Christians in 
the study of the Scriptures, we may infer that the 
extent to which the significance of the tabernacle was 
actually comprehended, as compared with the extent to 

Deut. xxxiii. 10. 2 2 Chron. xvii. 9, xxxv. 3. 

37 



SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



which it was possible to discover it, did not differ much 
in ratio from the measure of spiritual understanding in 
the knowledge of Christ to which men in modern times 
attain by means of the New Testament, as compared 
with the measure which is attainable. They were 
subject, as we are, to intellectual, circumstantial, and 
spiritual limitations ; and none of them fully compre- 
hended the meaning of their oracle. There were all 
degrees of attainment among them ; the most ignorant 
and carnal perceiving almost nothing beyond what they 
could see with the natural eye, and a few of the most 
intelligent and spiritual discerning Christ almost as 
clearly as if they had lived some centuries later, and with 
the same receptivity had compared the symbols of the 
tabernacle with the truth as it is in Jesus. 1 

1 Schottgen (Horae Hebraicae et Talmudicae, vol. ii.) has culled from 
Hebrew writers, some living before, and some very soon after the Christian era, a 
multitude of passages in regard to the Messiah, some of which are strangely like 
Christian utterances. These quotations show that, whatever different opinions 
may have been in the ascendant, individuals believed that the Messiah would suffer 
(pp. 550 et seg.), would die (p. 557), that he would die at the time of the passover, 
(p. 558), that he would rise from the dead (p. 565), that the holy dead would rise 
with him (p. 571), that he would ascend into heaven (p. 596), and that he would 
take away the sins of the Hebrews (p. 653). Eisenmenger (Entdecktes Juden- 
thum) has made a similar collection. One of his quotations reads, " He [Messiah] 
will offer up himself, and pour out his soul unto death, and his blood will expiate 
the people of God." (Vol. ii. p. 721.) 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



STUDY OF THE TABERNACLE IMPORTANT TO CHRISTIANS. 

The sacred tabernacle of the Hebrews, though super- 
seded by the tabernacle of flesh which it adumbrated, 
is even now worthy of attention. A man does not for- 
get his childhood, nor despise its lessons, because he 
has arrived at maturity ; neither should he contemn 
the beginnings of revelation because he lives when the 
Light of the World has risen above the horizon. The 
student of nature, however familiar with her face as it 
appears by day, might discover new expressions if he 
should gaze on it when the morning star is still visible 
in the east ; and in like manner we may discover, if we 
go back to the twilight of revelation, some truths which 
have been concealed, as the stars at noon, by the bright- 
ness of the Sun of righteousness, or see familiar truths 
in new forms, as one sees mountains which at evening 
stood with distinct outline in front of the western sky 
appearing in the early dawn as shapeless masses of cloud. 
If nature should be studied in all her varying aspects, 
so should revelation ; for as the world is one whether 
seen by day or night, in summer or winter, so it is one 
and the same God who of old dwelt between the cheru- 
bim, and now is in Christ. 

As a revelation of the same God who is revealed in, 

435 



436 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

Christ, the tabernacle would be an object of interest to 
the Christian even if its symbolism related to other 
attributes than those manifested in Christ, and other 
works than the work of redemption. The Christian is 
interested in nature because as a creation it speaks to 
him of the wisdom which designed, and the power which 
produced it, and thus aids him to a better acquaintance 
with God. Love neglects nothing which proceeds from, 
and is a manifestation of, the person who is its object; 
and the Christian consequently would be interested in 
the tabernacle as a work of God if, instead of being 
coincident with Christianity in the scope of its revela- 
tion,. it reflected such attributes of God as are mirrored 
in nature. But the tabernacle was a revelation of love, 
a representation of God coming down from heaven 
and dwelling with men as their Saviour, a prefiguration 
of the Emmanuel through whom the Christian has 
fellowship with God ; and as revealing not only the God 
they love, but the attributes of God they most delight 
in, is even now, when it exists only in history, an object 
of interest to those who would acquaint themselves as 
much as possible with their Father in heaven. 

Even if the Christian should find nothing in the 
tabernacle which he had not previously learned from 
the New Testament, he could not fail to be interested 
in a different mode of presenting the same truths. The 
symbols of the tabernacle would still be what the engrav- 
ings in a Bible are to a child, helps to the vivid appre- 
hension of the written word. They are the pictorial 
illustrations of the gospel forming images in the mind 
of the reader more distinct than his own imagination 
could construct, and thus aiding him to perceive as real, 



STUDY OF THE TABERNACLE IMPORTANT. 437 



the realities of which the gospel testifies. We succeed 
in bringing the invisible God within the sphere of our 
conception, so that he seems a real, living person, by 
looking at Christ as his image ; and, in like manner, 
by attending to the symbolism of the tabernacle, we may 
acquire a livelier apprehension of such realities as sin, 
expiation, fatherhood, and sonship. 

The symbols of the tabernacle are interesting also as 
belonging to the history of redemption, and thus con- 
tributing to a comprehensive knowledge of what it is ; 
for redemption does not consist in general truths, but in 
things done. It is a subject for the historian, rather 
than for the speculative philosopher. Redemption is a 
fact, or rather, a long series of facts ; and the existence 
of the tabernacle is part of its history as truly as is the 
life of Christ. Every fact in the history is precious, 
since it may contribute to our knowledge of what the 
plan of redemption is as a revelation of God, or as an 
influence on the character and condition of men. The 
gospel assures us that we have been redeemed with 
the blood of Christ ; and we interpret the assurance in the 
historic spirit which conceives of Mosaism and Chris- 
tianity as parts of one organic whole. If, instead of 
regarding the death of Christ as a part of the history 
of which the Hebrew sin-offering was also a part, we 
should isolate that event from its historical connections, 
we should lose a most important means of interpreting 
the assurances that Christ died for us, and that we have 
redemption through his blood. 

The preceding paragraph suggests another service 
which the tabernacle renders to the student of the New 
Testament. " Redemption through his blood "is a 

37* 



438 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

phrase which Christianity received from Mosaism, and 
is to be interpreted in its historical sense. The Chris- 
tian who studies the history of redemption from the 
beginning becomes better qualified to interpret the death 
of Christ not only by his more comprehensive knowl- 
edge of facts, but by his greater facilities for ascertaining 
the meaning of terms which the symbolic institutions 
have supplied to Christianity. The tabernacle is the 
dictionary in which the Christian is to find the authori- 
tative definition of such a phrase as "redeemed with 
the blood of Christ ; " and, as the number of terms 
transmitted from the older to the younger dispensation 
is by no means small, he has frequent occasion to 
invoke the aid of the tabernacle in the study of the 
gospel. 

But the tabernacle, though exhibiting the same 
kingdom as is proclaimed in the New Testament, 
presents it in an earlier stage of its development. The 
aspect of the kingdom, therefore, is not precisely the 
same as in the later delineation. As an edifice photo- 
graphed at different periods in the progress of its 
erection affords pictures not precisely alike, so the 
kingdom of God in the time of Moses presents a 
different appearance from the same kingdom in the time 
of Christ. It may happen, also, when an edifice is 
photographed a second time, that a picture is produced 
exhibiting some parts, or some relations of part to part, 
not manifest in the other, for the reason that the view 
was taken from a different stand-point. In such a case, 
the second picture will probably omit' some particulars 
shown in the first, so that each is a complement to 
the other. The New Testament, though portraying the 



STUDY OF THE TABERNACLE IMPORTANT. 439 

same kingdom as the tabernacle, was designed for men 
of later times, and of more advancement in spiritual 
culture. It presents, therefore, a view of the kingdom 
slightly different from that exhibited in the earlier 
dispensation, because taken from a stand-point better 
adapted to the spiritual condition of those it addresses. 
For example : the tabernacle represents God as the king 
of a family. The priests were his household, in which 
he reigned as a monarch. The idea of fatherhood was, 
indeed, represented, for it is involved in that of a family. 
As sons, they were admitted to his apartments and 
supplied with food from his table. But the idea of 
kingship was much more prominent than that of father- 
hood. The reverse is true in the Christian conception, 
which, though it by no means robs God of his kingly 
glory, mentions him more frequently as a father than as 
a king. In this conception, he is the Father of a 
kingdom, as, in the earlier, he was the King of a family. 
The two representations are equally correct copies of 
the kingdom of God, and owe their dissimilarity simply 
to the fact that the pictures were not taken from the 
same position. 

Each of these two conceptions of God is powerful in 
its influence on human character. To think of God as 
our Ruler, is to cultivate the conscience : to think of him 
as our Father, is to cultivate the affections. We cannot 
afford to lose either conception, for each contributes 
something toward the knowledge of a Person who cannot 
be described under any one metaphor drawn from human 
relations, nor, indeed, perfectly described under a 
thousand. Christianity has not contradicted the testi- 
mony of Mosaism, that God is a ruler : on the contrary, 



440 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



the mode in which it exhibits the fatherhood of God 
confirms the representation that he is a ruler, for it is by 
saving men from the sentence of his own law that he 
manifests his affection. But the teaching of the New 
Testament in regard to law and sin is so overlaid with 
its proclamation of love, that we easily overlook it, and 
have need of the Old Testament to bring us to Christ. 
As it was necessary that the revelation which God made 
of himself to the Hebrews should precede, in the history 
of the race, the manifestation of himself in Christ, so, in 
the religious experience of an individual, there must be 
some consciousness of guilt before he is prepared to 
appreciate the love of God in the expiation of sin. The 
Hebrew Scriptures and the Hebrew ritual are well fitted 
to develop such a consciousness ; and history shows that 
Christianity takes deepest root in individuals, families, 
and nations most conversant with the Hebrew concep- 
tion of God. 

The tabernacle is important to the Christian, as it aids 
in interpreting the symbolism of the New Testament. 
Christianity has its symbolic institutions, as well as 
Mosaism, though they are only two in number. Our 
Lord, in anticipation of his death as a sin-offering, 
directed that bread and wine should be used by his 
disciples to symbolize the sacrifice thus offered. -The 
application of water is a natural sign of cleansing ; and, 
as such, he directed it to be used in his church to 
signify that his people were cleansed from their sins. 
The general significance of baptism and the Lord's 
supper being apparent in the symbolism itself, and in 
words of explanation which accompany the establish- 
ment or celebration of the rites, is there any thing 



STUDY OF THE TABERNACLE IMPORTANT 441 



further to be learned by comparing these transactions 
with the symbolism of the tabernacle ? 

Man is prone to misuse the symbolic transactions 
appointed for his aid by confounding them with the 
truths symbolized. It is sufficiently evident to us who 
live since the advent of Christ, that the blood of lambs, 
kids, and bullocks, cannot really take away sin ; but 
doubtless many a Hebrew overlooked the fact that the 
sin-offering was a symbol, and rested in it as an efficient 
atonement. Some Christians in like manner see in 
baptism an efficient, instead of a symbolic cleansing, 
and in the bread and wine of the Lord's supper an 
efficient sacrifice for sin, instead of symbols of the body 
and blood of our Redeemer. This natural tendency 
to confound the symbol with that which it symbolizes 
has led to, and strengthened itself by means of, a wrong 
interpretation of the Scriptures. To one who under- 
stands that baptism is a symbol, the direction, " Arise, 
and be baptized, and wash away thy sins," conveys the 
idea that the washing with water is the sign of a 
spiritual transaction in which sin is taken away ; but to 
another, who overlooks the symbolic nature of the tran- 
saction, it seems to imply an efficiency in the rite itself 
to cleanse a man from his sins. One who understands 
that the Lord's supper is a symbol interprets the decla- 
ration, " This is my body," as a definition of the symbol ; 
but another, confounding the symbol with the thing 
symbolized, believes that our Lord intended to affirm 
the identity of the bread with his body. Now, the study 
of the tabernacle, as it induces the habit of discrimi- 
nating between symbols and the invisible things they 
represent, aids a Christian in rightly conceiving of bap- 



442 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TABERNACLE. 



tism and the Lord's supper, and in rightly interpreting 
what is written in the Scriptures in regard to these 
symbolic institutions. 

In the light derived from the symbolism of the 
tabernacle, the Lord's supper is seen to be a symbolic 
memorial of the death of Christ ; the bread and wine 
being the body and blood of our Lord in the sense in 
which white raiment is the righteousness of saints, 
and vessels full of odors are prayers. As wine in the 
supper is the blood of Christ shed for the remission of 
sins ; so water in baptism is also the blood of Christ as 
applied to an individual for the purpose of washing away 
his sins. 

There is a noteworthy difference between the old 
covenant and the new in symbolizing the remission of 
sins. When the covenant was ratified at Sinai, half the 
blood of sacrifice was sprinkled on the people to signify 
that they were a party to the covenant, as the sprinkling 
of the other half on the altar showed that Jehovah was 
pledged. But the Mosaic law made no provision in 
ordinary cases for applying the blood of expiation to the 
transgressor. He brought his sin-offering ; and its blood 
was sprinkled before Jehovah to show that his sacri- 
fice was accepted, and had accomplished its purpose. As 
the offering was for him alone, there was no occasion 
for applying the blood to his person to show that it had 
availed to redeem him as an individual. Christianity, 
on the other hand, notwithstanding the comparative 
paucity of its symbols, applies to every believer a sign 
that he is personally interested in the redemption which 
is in Christ Jesus. The propitiation is one and the 
same for all ; but each has, in the application of water to 



STUDY OF THE TABERNACLE IMPORTANT. 443 

his own person for the remission of sins, an assurance of 
his individual interest in the blood which was shed for 
many. 

Christianity has not only symbolic institutions, but 
symbolic writings ; and important aid may be derived 
from the symbolism of the tabernacle in the interpreta- 
tion of the latter, as well as of the former. The Apoca- 
lypse describes visions vouchsafed to the writer, of 
scenes invisible to the natural eye ; but, as the things he 
saw were symbols, it is only through study of the 
language of symbolism that the significance of these 
visions can be apprehended. Notwithstanding the many 
and diverse empiric interpretations offered, one after 
another, by persons seeking support in this book for 
opinions previously embraced, and the consequent scep- 
ticism which prevails in regard to the possibility of 
interpreting the visions otherwise than by conjecture, 
there is reason to believe that these symbols are 
employed in accordance with laws which rendered them 
intelligible to those for whose immediate benefit the 
book was written, and would again reveal their meaning 
if these laws could be recovered. Speaking of one of 
the symbolic numbers in the Apocalypse, Semisch has 
well said, "It is a hieroglyphic which still awaits its 
Champollion ; " 1 and the same might be said of many 
other symbols, with equal suggestiveness of what may 
come to pass when the visions of the Apocalypse are 
placed side by side with the symbolic institutions of the 
Old Testament. 

1 Herzog's Real-Encyklopadie, B. II. s. 659. 



INDEX 



A 

Acacia, 10. 

Acacia-wood, significance of, 233 ; signifi- 
cance of, in the edifice, 287. 

Altar of burnt-offerings, 42 ; significance of, 
291. 

Altar of incense, 41 ; significance of, 305- 

Altars, significance of, 289. 

Ancient symbolism, 177. 

Animal forms, significance of, 256. 

Animals, significance of, 248. 

Ark of the covenant, 31 ! captured by the 
Philistines, 106 ; restored by the Philis- 
tines, 107 ; separated from the tabernacle 
for half a century, 107 ; at Beth-shemesh, 
107 ; at Kirjath-jearim, 107 ; at the house 
of Obed-edom, 109 ; brought to Jerusalem, 
109 ; significance of, 308. 

Artisans employed in constructing the taber- 
nacle, 3- 

Atonement, the annual, 92 ; significance of 

its ceremonies, 385. 
Attendants of the tabernacle, 55* 

B 

Bars, the horizontal, 14. 

Bells and pomegranates on the robe of the 

ephod, significance of, 334- 
Blood, significance of, 222. 
Blue, significance of, 211. 
Bodily soundness in the priests, significance 

of, 323. 

Bonnets of the priests, significance of, 332. 
Bread and wine, significance of, 235. 
Breastplate of judgment, significance of, 336. 
Building of the tabernacle required, 4- 
Burnt-offering, 70 ; significance of, 355. 



C 

Calendar, 84 ; interpretation of, 37*« 

Candlestick, 39 ; significance of, 301. 

Cedar-wood, significance of, 233- 

Ceremonies of consecration to the priest- 
hood, significance of, 339- 

Cherubs, 18; significance of, 259; signifi- 
cance of, in the drapery of the edifice, 
287. 

Coat, or tunic, significance of, 328. 

Color, symbolism of, 209; significance of 

in the edifice, 283. 
Composite animal forms, significance of, 

256. 

Consecration of Aaron and his sons, 50. 
Consecration of the Levites, 52. 
Consecration of the tabernacle, 49. 
Consecration to the priesthood, significance 

of ceremonies at, 339. 
Contributions for building, 3. 
Corn and wine, significance of, 235. 
Corner planks, 13. 

Costume of the priests, interpretation of, 
324. fc - 

Costume of the high-priest, interpretation 
of, 333 ; on the day of atonement, not to 
be confounded with the costume of a sub- 
ordinate priest, 339. 

Court, screen around, 29 ; significance of, 
266. 

Covenant between Jehovah and the He- 
brews was truly a covenant, 309. 

Cover of the ark of the covenant, signifi- 
cance of, 310. 

Crimson, significance of, 217. 

Current expenses, 115. 

Curtains, 16. 

445 



446 



INDEX. 



D 

Daily service, 86 ; significance of, 372. 

Death, uncleanness by contact with, signifi- 
cance of the lustration from, 364. 

Defilement, ceremonial, 78. 

Defilement by contact with death, signifi- 
cance of the lustration from, 364. 

Drink-offerings, 72 ; significance of, 357. 

E 

Edifice of tabernacle, 9 ; interpretation of, 
264. 

Election of Aaron and his descendants to 

the priesthood, significance of, 320. 
Ephod, significance of, 335. 
Erection of the tabernacle, 45. 
Expenses of construction, 113. 
Expenses of worship, how defrayed, 1 15. 

F 

First fruits of the cereal harvest, presenta- 
tion of, 89; significance of the presenta- 
tion of, 381. 

Five, significance of, 198. 

Food-offering, significance of, 356. 

Form, symbolism of, 182 ; significance of, 
in the edifice, 271. 

Four, significance of, 194. 

Frame, description of, 10. 

Fringe on the robe of the ephod, significance 
of, 333- 

Furniture, 31 ; interpretation of, 289. 
G 

Garments of the priests, significance of, 324. 
Girdle of the priests, significance of, 331. 
Goat's hair, curtain of, 26. 
Gold on wood, 14. 
Gold, significance of, 226. 
Ground-plan of the tabernacle was a paral- 
lelogram, 9. 

H 

Head-dress of the high-priest, significance 
of, 337- 

Head-dress of subordinate priests, signifi- 
cance of, 332. 

Hebrews, how far they comprehended the 
significance of the tabernacle, 427. 



High-priest, his costume, 60. 
Holiness of the priesthood, significance of, 
321. 

Holy of holies, significance of, 269. 
Holy place, significance of, 267, 307. 
Hyssop, significance of, 234. 

I 

Illumination of the court of the women at 

the festival of tabernacles, 96. 
Incense, significance of, 242. 

J 

Jewels, significance of, 23 1. 
Journey from Sinai to the border of Canaan, 

time occupied in, 102. 
Journeys of the Hebrews, 101. 

K 

Keepers of the tabernacle, 55. 
Korah, rebellion of, 103. 

L 

Laver in the court, 43 ; not in itself signifi- 
cant, 294. 
Leaven, significance of, 380. 
Leprosy, lustration from, significance of, 

367. 

Levites, consecration of, 52 ; duties of, 56 ; 

their maintenance, 122. 
Linen of the innermost curtain, 16. 
Lunar service, significance of, 375. 
Lustration from sin required, 76. 
Lustration from ceremonial defilement, 78. 
Lustrations, interpretation of, 361. 

M 

Manna, 36. 

Material of the frame, 10. 
Meat-offering, 71. 
Mercy-seat, significance of, 310. 
Metals, significance of, in the edifice, 285. 
Migrations of the tabernacle, 100. 
Minerals, symbolism of, 225. 
Mosaism, symbolized in the tabernacle, 140 ; 
prominent features of, 140; differed from 
heathen religions, 146 ; as it differed from 
the religion of Egypt, 147; essentially 
the same system as Christianity, 164. 



INDEX. 



447 



New-moon, 88. 

New-moon service, significance of, 375. 
Number, symbolism of, 182; significance 
of, in the edifice, 275. 

O 

Occasional sacrifices, 98. 
Oil, significance of, 238. 

P 

Paschal ceremonies, significance of, 376. 

Passage of the Jordan, 104. 

Passover, 88; celebrated in the wilderness, 
51 ; first celebration of, in Canaan, 105. 

Peace-offering, 72 ; significance of, 357- 

Pentecost, 90; significance of its ceremo- 
nies, 383. 

Perfumes, significance of, 242. 

Pillars for the curtains, 15. 

Planks of the frame, 10. 

Pomegranates on the robe of the ephod, 
significance of, 334. 

Pouring of water at the festival of taberna- 
cles, 96 ; significance of, 396. 

Priests, distinguished from Levites, 58; 
their official costume, 59 ; their consecra- 
tion, 59 ; their duties, 64 ; their mainte- 
nance, 118. 

Priesthood, interpretation of, 317. 

Prophetic symbols or types, 399- 

Purity, ceremonial required, 77. 

Purple, significance of, 215. 

Q 

Quadrangle, significance of, 197. 

R 

Removal from Sinai, 100. 

Robe of the ephod, significance of, 333- 

S 

Sabbath service, 87. 

Sabbath, significance of, 374. 

Sacrifices, different species of, 66. 

Sacrifices, interpretation of, 342. 

Scape-goat, 392. 

Seven, significance of, 199. 

Seventh new-moon, 91. 



Shittim-wood, 10. 

Show-bread, significance of, 295. 

Signal for removing to another station, 5. 

Silver sill under the frame, 15. 

Silver, significance of, 229. 

Similar symbols employed by the Egyptians 
and the Hebrews, 134- 

Sin-offering, 67 ; significance of, 344- 

Study of the tabernacle important to Chris- 
tians, 435- 

Symbolic significance of the tabernacle, ar- 
gued from the general use of symbols in 
the time of Moses, 130 ; testimony to, in 
Jewish writings, 135 \ evident to one who 
understands the language of symbols, 139- 

Symbolism of the ancients, 177. 

Symbols were employed by the Egyptians, 
132. 

Symbols of the tabernacle, had reference 
primarily to Mosaism as distinguished 
from Christianity, 151 ; in what way 
prophetic of Christianity, 164 ; means of 
interpreting, 167. 

T 

Tabernacle, the word applied to the inner- 
most curtain, 16 ; at Gilgal, 106 ; at Shi- 
loh, 106; at Nob, 107; at Gibeon, no; 
deposited in the temple by Solomon, in. 

Tabernacles, festival of, 95 ; significance of 
ceremonies at the festival of, 394- 

Table of show-bread, 38 ; significance of, 295. 

Tax of half-shekel, 115. 

Tax for celebration of festivals, 123. 

Temporary tabernacle, 4. 

Ten, significance of, 202. 

Three, significance of, 187. 

Tithes, 122. 

Transportation of the tabernacle, 100. 

Trespass-offering, 69 ; significance of, 354- 

Triangle, significance of, 189. 

Tripartite division of the tabernacle, signifi- 
cance of, 270. 

Trumpets, festival of, 91 ! significance of 
the ceremonies at the festival of, 384' 

Tunic, significance of, 328. 

Twelve, significance of, 205. 

Types, or prophetic symbols, 399. 

Typology of Lund, specimen of, 156. 



44 .8 



INDEX. 



Typical of Christ as an expiator, the priest- 
hood was, 416. 

Typical of Christ as a sacrifice, all the sacri- 
fices of the tabernacle were, 418. 

Typical of Christ as a sin-offering, the sin- 
offering of the tabernacle was, 421. 

Typical of Christ, the costume of the priests 
was, 412. 

Typical of Christ, the edifice was, 400. 

Typical of Christ, the eminence of the priests 
over their brethren was, 410. 

Typical of the expiation made by Christ, the 
fellowship of Christians with God through 
Christ, and of the still closer fellowship 
between him and the Father, the priest- 
hood was, 410. 

Typical of the final condition of redeemed 
humanity, the Jioly of holies was, 406. 

Typical of the period between the two ad- 
vents of Christ, the holy place was, 406. 

Typical of the union of Christians with 
Christ, the breastplate was, 416. 

Typical of the union of Christians with 
Christ, the frame was, 405. 



U 

Uncleanness, 77. 

Uncleanness, ceremonial, 78. 

Uncleanness by contact with death, signifi- 
cance of the lustration from, 364. 

Uncleanness of leprosy, significance of the 
lustration from, 367. 

Unleavened bread during the paschal week, 
significance of, 379. 

Uzza, death of, 108. 

V 

Vegetable substances, symbolism of, 233. 
Veil at the entrance, 25. 
Veil between holy place and holy of holies, 
25- 

W 

Water of separation, 366. 
Water, pouring of, at the festival of taber- 
nacles, 96 ; significance of, 396. 
White linen, significance of, 209. 



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